What to do if you lose your passport abroad

If you lose your passport abroad, do three things in this order: report it to the local police and get a written report, contact your country’s embassy or consulate, and apply for an emergency travel document or a replacement passport there. The UK, the US and EU countries all have a way to get you home on a temporary document, often within a few days. The details, costs and timing depend on your nationality, so the sections below follow what each government’s own pages say, checked on 19 October 2026.

Report it to the local police

The UK government’s advice for anyone whose passport, money or bank cards are lost or stolen abroad is to report it to the local police as soon as possible and ask for a statement or crime report. You may need that for a travel insurance claim. It also notes that in most countries you must report a crime before you leave if you want it investigated.

Keep the report with your other papers, and check your government’s travel advice for the country you are in for any local steps.

Contact your embassy or consulate

Your embassy or consulate is where you get a new travel document. Find the nearest one on your government’s website, and call or check its page before you go. Some missions, such as the U.S. Embassy in the United Kingdom, require an appointment for passport services.

• UK nationals: contact the nearest British embassy, high commission or consulate. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) also takes calls 24/7 on +44 (0) 20 7008 5000.
• US citizens: contact the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate. The U.S. Embassy in Italy tells citizens to report a lost or stolen passport to the Department of State immediately.
• EU citizens: contact the embassy or consulate of your own EU country first. If your country has no embassy or consulate in a non-EU country, you can go to the embassy or consulate of any other EU country and get the same help as its own citizens.

Emergency travel documents compared

	UK citizens	US citizens	EU citizens
Document	Emergency travel document	Limited-validity emergency passport	EU Emergency Travel Document (or your country’s national emergency document)
Where to apply	Online, then collect from an embassy or consulate	In person at a U.S. embassy or consulate	At an EU country’s embassy or consulate
Typical timing	Usually ready 2 working days after you apply	Can be same day if approved (varies by embassy)	Should normally take no longer than 7 working days
Fee	£125, non-refundable (as of October 2026)	Varies, check your embassy’s page	Same as the issuing country charges its own nationals
Use	One single or return journey, up to 5 countries	Limited validity	Single journey, normally valid no more than 15 calendar days

UK citizens: the emergency travel document

GOV.UK says you can apply for an emergency travel document if you are a British national outside the UK, you need to travel within 6 weeks, your passport is lost, stolen, damaged, full, recently expired or held elsewhere, you cannot replace it from abroad in time, and you have had a UK passport issued on or after 1 January 2006. If you have not, different rules apply and you usually need a full passport unless there are exceptional circumstances.

What to know before you apply:

• Cost: £125, as of October 2026, with no refund. A relative or friend can pay if you have lost your wallet.
• What you need: a digital passport photo that meets the guidelines, a phone number, an email address and a debit or credit card.
• Timing: usually ready to collect 2 working days after you apply. It can take several weeks in some cases, for example for a child under 16 or if you need an appointment.
• Do not book travel until you get an email telling you how and when to collect the document. If your plans change, you need to reapply and pay £125 again.
• Your old passport is usually cancelled automatically once you pay. If you apply for the emergency document, you do not need to cancel the passport separately first.
• Check acceptance: confirm the document will be accepted in every country you will leave, enter or pass through, including visa rules.

If you arrive in the UK on it, border control will keep it.

US citizens: emergency and replacement passports

The State Department’s own travel.state.gov page on lost passports abroad was behind a bot check when we tried to read it, so this section uses U.S. embassy pages. Procedures and fees vary by embassy, so read the page of the embassy you will visit.

• The U.S. Embassy in Italy says a limited-validity passport can be issued the same day for lost or stolen passports if the application is received before 12:00 PM. Otherwise it is processed the next business day.
• The U.S. Embassy in the United Kingdom requires an in-person appointment to replace a lost or stolen passport. Its checklist includes Form DS-11, Form DS-64, evidence of U.S. citizenship, a photo, and ID if you have it. It issues limited-validity emergency passports the same day if approved, and offers emergency appointments if you are within five working days of urgent travel with a confirmed itinerary and cannot get an online slot.
• On that UK embassy’s page, the adult passport book fee is $165 and $135 for minors, as of October 2026. Other embassies may list fees differently, so check yours.

EU citizens: the EU Emergency Travel Document

The European Commission says a new EU Emergency Travel Document has been in place since 9 December 2025, with an updated format and stronger security features. It is issued to EU citizens whose passport has been lost, stolen or destroyed in a non-EU country where their own EU country has no embassy or consulate. EU countries may also issue it to their own nationals.

• How to apply: at an EU country’s embassy or consulate, with whatever ID you still have, such as an identity card or driving licence, and a photo.
• Checks: your nationality and identity are verified with your home country. If your documents are gone, nationality can be confirmed in other ways.
• Timing: in normal cases, no longer than seven working days.
• Fee: the issuing country may charge what it charges its own nationals for a national emergency document, so fees differ.
• Validity: a single journey home or to your country of residence, for the time the journey takes plus two days, and save in exceptional cases no more than 15 calendar days. You hand it back when you arrive.

Calling your embassy, bank and airline from abroad

Losing a passport usually means a run of phone calls: the embassy for an appointment, your bank to block cards that went missing with it, your airline to change a flight, your insurer about a claim. GOV.UK advises contacting your card issuers straight away, and says your bank may be able to give you a code to withdraw cash at an ATM without the card.

Messaging apps such as WhatsApp call contacts who use the same app over the internet. To reach an embassy switchboard, a bank, an airline or any landline, use an app that calls the phone network, such as CallTuv. It calls regular landlines and mobiles in more than 200 destinations from a web browser, iPhone or Android, with pay-as-you-go credit that never expires and rates from $0.03 a minute, no app required. Free verified caller ID shows your own number. CallTuv makes outgoing calls only and cannot call emergency numbers: for police, ambulance or fire, use a local phone or the local emergency number.

For more options, read how to call home from abroad and our list of the top 5 apps to call landlines.

Prevention: what to do before you travel

Photo by Oxana Melis on Unsplash

• Keep a photo or photocopy of your passport. GOV.UK says it can help you answer the questions when you report the passport lost. Keep one copy in your phone or email and a paper copy apart from the passport.
• Have a spare passport photo that meets your country’s rules. Both the UK online application and EU embassies ask for one.
• Note your embassy’s details before you go. Your Europe advises EU citizens to check whether their country has an embassy or consulate at the destination, and if not, to note the details of other EU countries’ missions.
• Register your trip if your government offers it. Your Europe suggests this to EU citizens where their country has a platform for it.
• Save your bank’s and insurer’s international phone numbers, so you can block cards and start a claim quickly.

For the rest of your trip planning, see our travel packing checklist and best travel apps. Visiting Europe? Read EES and ETIAS explained too.