A lost passport abroad feels like a catastrophe and is usually a solvable administrative problem, provided you move in the right order and do not waste the first day. Consulates deal with this constantly. The process exists, it works, and knowing the sequence turns a ruined trip into a delayed one.
Written September 2026. Procedures and fees vary by nationality; check your own government’s consular guidance for specifics.
A lost passport: what to do in the first hour
- Search properly before reporting. Once cancelled, a passport stays cancelled. If it turns up an hour later it is no longer valid, so a careful ten minute search is worth more than it sounds.
- Report it to the local police if it was stolen, and get a copy of the report or a reference number. Some consulates require it, and insurers almost always do.
- Report it lost to your own government, which cancels the document and prevents misuse. Most countries have an online form for this.
- Contact your nearest embassy or consulate, not the embassy in the capital by default. Consulates in other cities can often help faster.
Do those in that order. Reporting to your government before searching is the common mistake, and it is the one that cannot be undone.
The emergency travel document
You will usually not be issued a full replacement passport abroad in time for your flight. What consulates issue instead is an emergency travel document, sometimes called an emergency passport, and it is designed for exactly this situation.
- It is single use and route specific. You declare your intended journey, including any transit countries, and the document is issued for that route. Changing plans afterwards is difficult, so get the route right.
- Not every country accepts it for transit. This is the detail that catches people. Check before booking a connection, because a transit hub that will not accept the document leaves you stranded again.
- It usually takes a day or two, sometimes same day in urgent cases, though not typically at weekends or on local public holidays.
- It costs money, generally comparable to a passport fee, and it does not replace your passport. You still apply for a new one when home.
What you need to bring
Requirements vary, and this list covers most cases: some form of identification or a copy of the lost passport, passport-style photographs, your police report if the document was stolen, evidence of your travel plans such as a booking confirmation, and the fee. If you have nothing at all, consulates can still help and it takes longer, because identity has to be established another way.
How to make it far easier before you go
Almost everything that makes a lost passport slow is preparation that takes ten minutes at home.
- Photograph the identity page and store it somewhere you can reach without your phone, such as an email to yourself or cloud storage you can access from any device.
- Carry a separate photocopy kept apart from the passport itself. Paper works when a phone is also stolen, which is the common case.
- Note the consulate details for where you are going, before you need them.
- Take spare passport photographs if you are travelling somewhere remote, where finding a photo booth can cost you a day.
- Check your insurance covers document replacement and the associated travel costs, since many policies do.
Our travel tech checklist covers backing up documents alongside the rest of your pre-trip preparation, and the same principle applies to anything you would struggle to replace.
The things people get wrong
Three mistakes recur. Booking a replacement flight before knowing when the document will be issued, which wastes money when the timing slips. Assuming the consulate can produce a document outside working hours, which for anything short of a genuine emergency it cannot. And not telling the airline, which frequently has more flexibility on changes than travellers expect once a police report exists.
The reassuring reality is that this is routine work for consular staff. A stolen passport on the second day of a fortnight in an unfamiliar country is genuinely unpleasant, and it is also a problem with a well-worn path through it.
If your other documents went with it
A stolen bag rarely contains only a passport, and the rest of the response matters too. Cancel bank cards immediately through your banking app or a published emergency number, not through any number in a message you receive afterwards, since thieves follow up on stolen cards with convincing calls.
If your phone went as well, use its find and erase feature from any browser, and change the password on the email account it was signed into, because that account is the recovery route for everything else. Our guide on recovering a hacked account covers that sequence, and it is worth following even when nothing has obviously been accessed yet.
Driving licences, travel tickets and insurance documents are all replaceable remotely, and most can be reissued digitally within hours. Deal with them after the passport, since the passport is the one with a queue.
Travelling with children or in a group
A lost passport belonging to a child adds a step: consulates will want evidence of parental responsibility as well as identity, so a birth certificate photograph stored alongside the passport scan is genuinely useful. If one member of a group loses a passport, the rest do not need to change plans, and the person affected should not be left to manage a consulate visit alone in an unfamiliar city if it can be avoided. Airlines will generally rebook the affected traveller separately once a police report and a consulate appointment exist.
Common questions
What should I do first if I lose my passport abroad? Search thoroughly before reporting it, because cancellation is irreversible. Then report a theft to local police, report the loss to your own government, and contact your nearest consulate.
What is an emergency travel document? A single-use, route-specific document issued by your consulate so you can complete your journey. It is not a replacement passport, and you apply for a new passport once home.
How long does it take to get one? Typically a day or two, sometimes same day for urgent cases. Weekends and local public holidays can extend that, so contact the consulate as early as possible.
Will my travel insurance cover it? Many policies cover document replacement and related costs, but you will usually need a police report, which is one reason to obtain one even when the passport was merely lost.
Sources and further reading
Where the figures and rules above come from, so you can check them:
- Consular guidance on lost and stolen passports abroad: GOV.UK
- Consular assistance for citizens abroad: US Department of State
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