Passport Lost or Stolen While Travelling?

Loosing your passport could be one of the worst nightmares you can ever have. But things do happen and it just takes a little courage to deal with such untoward incidents.

Stay Calm

It certainly is a big deal when you lose your passport, however panicking wouldn’t do any good. It’s just a loss of passport which can be re-issued it’s not an end of life.

Backtrack Your Steps 

There are chances you might have left your passport at the foreign exchange desk or at the car rental counter, try to recollect when was the last time you used the passport.

File A Police Report

Walk into the nearest police station and lodge an official complaint mentioning where the passport could have been lost ( if you remember). The officer would give you an acknowledgement about the complaint which would be needed while applying for a duplicate passport.

Notify Your Embassy or The Nearest Consulate 

Visit your embassy in the country where you lost your passport, the embassy would ask for certain documents to prove the authenticity of the request and the proof of citizenship. The embassy officials would normally ask for the below mentioned documents

1. Copy of the Passport
2. Copy of the police complaint
3. 2 Photos
4. A request form that is usually available online on the embassy’s website or you can pickup one in the embassy.
5. Emergency / Temporary passport issuance fees.

You will need an exit visa

Once you obtain your Emergency / Temporary passport, you would need to have an exit visa from the respective country, as you used a different document to obtain an entry which had the entry visa/stamp. Your embassy would assist you to obtain one, however the officials of the respective country could impose a penalty to have the same arranged.

Always Ensure To…

Have hard copies of your passport with you, also have a scanned copy saved in the draft folder of your inbox. This could be helpful during such unfortunate occasions.