A passport lost abroad is recoverable, and the order you do things in decides how long it takes. Report it, get to your embassy or consulate, and expect to be issued a limited document that gets you home rather than a replacement passport. Every one of the 211 destinations the U.S. State Department publishes country information for lists a U.S. embassy or consulate contact, which is the single most useful fact on this page.
The short version
- Report it immediately. A reported passport is canceled, which protects you even though it means it cannot be used again if you find it.
- Your embassy or consulate is the only place that can help. No hotel, airline or travel company can issue a document.
- Expect an emergency travel document, valid for the journey home, rather than a full replacement.
- A local police report is usually required, and is often needed for insurance too.
- Copies make this a bad day instead of a bad week. Carry one, store one, and leave one with somebody at home.
What You Need to Know
A passport is your government’s property and its loss is reported to your government, not to the country you are in. Once reported it is invalidated, and that is the point: a canceled passport is worth nothing to whoever took it. The trade-off is that the cancellation is not reversible, so a passport that turns up the following day still cannot be used.
What you get in return is not usually a new passport. It is a limited-validity emergency document, issued for a specific journey, sometimes for a single destination. It is enough to get home and it is not enough to continue a trip through three more countries, which is a distinction that matters if the loss happens early in an itinerary.
Who can actually help
Your embassy or consulate. Not the local police, who can take a report but cannot issue a travel document. Not your airline, which will not carry you without one. Not your hotel, tour operator or travel insurer, all of which can assist around the edges. Knowing this in advance saves a day of asking the wrong people.
The State Department publishes embassy and consulate contact details for every destination it covers, and there is no destination in that set without one listed. Find yours before you travel and save it somewhere reachable without your phone.
How It Works
The sequence is consistent almost everywhere.
- Report the loss to the State Department, which cancels the passport. This can be done from abroad and should not wait until office hours.
- Report it to the local police and obtain a written report. Some consulates require it, most insurers do, and it is easier to obtain on the day than a week later.
- Contact the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate and follow their instructions for an appointment. Outside office hours there is an emergency line for genuine emergencies, and a stolen passport with a flight tomorrow is one.
- Attend with what evidence you have: a copy of the lost passport, another photographic identification, the police report, a passport photograph, and your travel itinerary.
- Receive an emergency travel document and, if necessary, re-book travel around the date it is issued.
How long that takes depends on where you are, whether it is a working day, and how far you are from a consulate. In a capital city with documentation in hand it can be same-day or next-day. In a remote region on a public holiday it is longer, and the travel to the consulate is itself part of the problem.
What to Do Before Your Trip
- Photograph the data page and store it somewhere reachable without the passport and without your phone.
- Carry one paper copy, packed separately from the passport itself.
- Leave a copy with somebody at home who can send it to you.
- Save the embassy or consulate details for every country on your itinerary, including transit countries.
- Carry a second form of photographic identification, stored separately.
- Pack two spare passport photographs. They cost almost nothing and are hard to obtain in a hurry abroad.
- Check what your travel insurance covers, and what it requires you to do first.
Leading a group? One lost passport can strand one traveler and delay everyone, and the group leader is the person who has to decide whether the itinerary continues without them.
Explore group travel planningImportant Considerations
A copy is not a passport
A photograph of the data page will not get you through an airport. What it does is make the replacement faster, by establishing the number and the details without anyone having to reconstruct them. That is a substantial saving on the day and it is the whole reason to carry one.
Visas do not survive
Any visa in the lost passport is gone with it. Where you need a visa for the country you are in, or for the next one on your itinerary, replacing it is a separate process with the issuing country, and it may not be possible in the time available. This is the point at which a multi-country itinerary usually becomes a journey home.
Theft has an extra step
If the passport was taken rather than mislaid, the police report matters more, both for the insurance claim and because the document may be used fraudulently. Report it as theft where it was theft, and keep the reference number.
Where an embassy is not nearby
Some countries have a single consulate a long way from where you are, and traveling to it internally without a passport can itself be difficult. Ask the consulate what documentation you need to make that journey, before you make it.
Tips for Group Travelers
- Hold copies of every traveler’s data page centrally, securely, for the duration of the trip, and delete them afterwards.
- Brief the group on the first day: what to do, who to tell, and where the documents are kept.
- Have the embassy details for every country on the itinerary in the group leader’s pack, on paper.
- Decide the contingency in advance. Whether the group waits or continues is a decision that should not be made for the first time at a hotel reception at midnight.
- Never take custody of travelers’ passports as a precaution. It concentrates the risk and creates a bigger problem when the bag holding twenty passports goes missing.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Waiting to see if it turns up. Reporting it is the step that protects you, and delay only shortens the time available to replace it.
- Going to the police and stopping there. Necessary, and not sufficient.
- Assuming a replacement will be a normal passport. Plan around an emergency document valid for the journey home.
- Having no copy of anything. It turns a day into several.
- Keeping the copy in the same bag as the passport. They are lost together.
- Carrying the passport everywhere. Where local law allows, leave it secured and carry a copy plus other identification.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the first thing to do?
Report the loss so the passport is canceled, and then contact the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate. Do those two things before you spend time searching, re-booking or telephoning anybody else. The cancellation protects you and the consulate is the only route to a travel document.
Will I get a new passport or something else?
Usually an emergency travel document with limited validity, intended to get you home rather than to continue a trip. A full replacement is applied for afterwards, normally once you are back. If the rest of your itinerary depends on a full passport, expect that itinerary to change.
How long does it take?
It depends on where you are, whether it is a working day, and how far you are from a consulate. In a capital city with your documentation in order it can be same-day or next-day. Remote locations, weekends and public holidays are what make it longer, which is a reason to report it immediately rather than at the end of the day.
My passport was stolen along with my wallet and phone. Where do I even start?
Find someone with a telephone: the hotel, the tour operator, the police. Report the theft to the police and to the State Department, then contact the embassy. This is the scenario the paper copy and the emergency contact card are for, which is why they are worth packing separately from everything else.
What happens to the visa that was in it?
It is lost with the passport. Replacing it means going back to the country that issued it, which may not be practical from where you are. If a visa is essential to the rest of the trip, treat the loss as a trip-ending event and plan the journey home.
Related Travel Tips
- Passports, visas and entry requirements, the section this guide belongs to.
- Passport Requirements for International Travel. Replacing the document properly once you are home.
- What Documents Do You Need for International Travel? Including the copies this page depends on.
- Understanding Travel Advisories, for the safety picture where theft is a known risk.
Plan Your Trip With LABUSA Travel
A lost passport is a logistics problem happening to someone who is already having a bad day, and usually in a country whose systems they do not know. Having a travel partner who can make the calls is the difference between an afternoon and a week.
Talk with a LABUSA Travel advisor about a trip you are considering, or read about our group travel service if you are responsible for other travelers.
Verify Before You Travel
Reporting procedures and embassy contact details are published by the U.S. Department of State. Confirm the current process at USA.gov’s passport pages, find your destination’s embassy or consulate through the U.S. Department of State, and save those details before you leave. This page is general guidance, not advice about your specific situation.
Travel requirements, health guidance and safety conditions can change. Always confirm current requirements with the appropriate government or official authority before departure.