Lost Your Passport Abroad? What to Do, Step by Step
If you lose your passport abroad, report it to the local police, then contact your country's nearest embassy or consulate and ask for an emergency travel document (some countries call it an emergency passport). Bring a police report, a photo ID or a copy of the passport if you have one, and proof of your travel plans. A clear copy of the lost passport is the single thing that speeds this up the most.
First, make sure it's really gone
Before you start the paperwork, retrace your steps for an hour. Call the hotel reception, the restaurant from last night, the airline or the taxi app. Passports left at hotel desks and in rental cars turn up more often than people expect. Once you report a passport as lost or stolen, most countries cancel it permanently, so even if it reappears later you usually can't travel on it.
Step 1: File a police report
Go to a local police station and ask for a written report saying the passport was lost or stolen. Many embassies ask for one, and your travel insurer almost certainly will if you claim for extra hotel nights or a rebooked flight. Ask for a copy with a reference number, and take a photo of it straight away.
- Note where and roughly when you lost it.
- If other things were stolen too (wallet, phone, cards), put them all in the same report.
- If the station doesn't speak your language, your embassy can often tell you which station handles tourists.
Step 2: Contact your embassy or consulate
Search for your country's embassy in the country you're in, and check its website before turning up: many consulates only see people by appointment, and most have an out-of-hours number for real emergencies. Tell them when you need to fly. Depending on your country and your situation, they will either issue an emergency travel document that gets you home (or on to your next stop), or start a full replacement passport.
If you're an EU citizen and your own country has no embassy or consulate where you are, you're entitled to help from the embassy of any other EU country, including an EU emergency travel document.
What to bring
| Item | Why they ask for it |
|---|---|
| Police report | Proof the passport was lost or stolen |
| Copy of the lost passport, or another photo ID | Confirms who you are and speeds up the identity check |
| Passport-size photos | Often required for the emergency document; check the size rules first |
| Flight booking or itinerary | Emergency documents are usually valid only for a specific trip |
| A way to pay the fee | Most consulates charge for emergency documents |
Step 3: Cancel the old passport
Make sure the lost passport is officially reported so nobody else can use it. Sometimes the consulate does this when you apply for the emergency document; in other countries you report it yourself online or on a form (US citizens, for example, use form DS-64). Ask the consulate which applies to you rather than assuming.
Step 4: Sort out the rest of your trip
- Airline: tell them you'll be travelling on an emergency document and check it's accepted for your route, especially if you have a connection in a third country.
- Visas: a visa in the lost passport is usually gone too. If you need a visa or entry stamp to leave or continue, ask the local immigration office what to do.
- Insurance: keep every receipt (photos, consulate fees, extra nights, taxis to the embassy) and send them with the police report.
- At home: an emergency travel document is temporary. Apply for a normal replacement passport once you're back.
How to make this much easier next time
Everything above goes faster when you can show the consulate a clear copy of the lost passport's photo page. The catch is where that copy lives. A photo in your camera roll syncs to the cloud and can be shared by accident, and a scan in your email is readable by anyone who gets into your account. We cover the options in detail in how to keep a digital copy of your passport safely.
- Scan before you travel: the photo page, any visas you depend on, your national ID card and driving licence.
- Keep it encrypted on your phone: an offline vault such as UnderKey keeps the copy out of your photo library and the cloud, and opens with your pattern even with no signal.
- Carry one paper copy in a different bag from the passport itself, in case your phone is stolen too.
- Write down your embassy's address and emergency number for every country on your trip.
- Track the expiry date: many countries want your passport valid for months beyond your stay, so a reminder well before it runs out saves a rushed renewal.
If you're also carrying a crypto wallet's recovery phrase on the trip, read where to store a seed phrase safely before you go.