FYI: Lost Passport and Options in Emergencies

[nelblu]

Below is an article from Conde Nast dated January 22, 2019 "Lost My Passport and I Fly Today-Help."

 

https://www.cntraveler.com/story/lost-passport-heres-what-to-do?mbid=nl_012419_daily&CNDID=45327824&utm_source=nl&utm_medium=email&utm_brand=cnt&utm_mailing=tvl_intel_ACTIVE_2019_0124 (1) C&bxid=MTU5ODQ2MTM1NTY0S0&hasha=275926cd14677bf98e7f1ad7268c2d52&hashb=52b62ef0457d93e48703e5ed0d2e055530c2368c&spMailingID=15009166&spUserID=MTU5ODQ2MTM1NTY0S0&spJobID=1561938716&spReportId=MTU2MTkzODcxNgS2

[klfrodo]

Good info.

While disastrous if you are the one who has lost, misplaced, or had one stolen, I find the numbers interesting.

 

Google shows that there are 113,431,943 issued passports in the US, only 300,000 get replaced due to being lost, misplaced, or stolen. That's only 0.26%. Hardly a Sky is Falling, protect your passport like it is your last vestige of hope number.

[notalandlover]

I would like to hear about what others in this community have done when their passport has been lost.  I take a picture of it for my phone and email a copy of myself.  I wonder if that matters when overseas and its lost.

[jagsfan]

10 minutes ago, notalandlover said:

I would like to hear about what others in this community have done when their passport has been lost.  I take a picture of it for my phone and email a copy of myself.  I wonder if that matters when overseas and its lost.

It would help the Embassy issue a temp to get you home. 

[SantaFeFan]

1 hour ago, klfrodo said:

Good info.

While disastrous if you are the one who has lost, misplaced, or had one stolen, I find the numbers interesting.

 

Google shows that there are 113,431,943 issued passports in the US, only 300,000 get replaced due to being lost, misplaced, or stolen. That's only 0.26%. Hardly a Sky is Falling, protect your passport like it is your last vestige of hope number.

 

It is for those 0.26%!  🙄

 

I have a much less chance of being in the 0.26% group BECAUSE I protect my passport by leaving it in the safe when not required to carry it. 

Edited January 31, 2019 by SantaFeFan

[Shmoo here]

18 minutes ago, notalandlover said:

I would like to hear about what others in this community have done when their passport has been lost.  I take a picture of it for my phone and email a copy of myself.  I wonder if that matters when overseas and its lost.

Not recent, but I lost my passport while traveling in Germany.  Luckily we were in Munich (big city = US consulate).  Had to go to Consulate, with new pictures (I had extras made when original passport was issued) and get an emergency passport.  I had to have someone verify that I was a US citizen and that I was traveling in Europe.  Most of the time (for most people) that could require them contacting someone "back home" and getting that information.  Happily, my mother was with me, and still had her passport, so she could sign the paper attesting to that.

 

Took about 2 days, but I got the new passport.

 

Taking a picture of your passport may help, but they still have to do the same processing, as far as I know.

 

 

[PTMary]

6 hours ago, klfrodo said:

Good info.

While disastrous if you are the one who has lost, misplaced, or had one stolen, I find the numbers interesting.

 

Google shows that there are 113,431,943 issued passports in the US, only 300,000 get replaced due to being lost, misplaced, or stolen. That's only 0.26%. Hardly a Sky is Falling, protect your passport like it is your last vestige of hope number.

 

That is a complete pointless statistic. For the vast majority of the time, most people aren't using their passports. They are left at home until needed.

 

A much more accurate statistic is the number of US passports that are actually used each year. And according to the US state department, that number is only 3.5%. So, doing simple math, 300,000 out of 3, 970,118 amounts to about 7.6% of US passports that are actually used each year are lost. That is a relatively high percentage. 

[NantahalaCruiser]

5 minutes ago, PTMary said:

 

That is a complete pointless statistic. For the vast majority of the time, most people aren't using their passports. They are left at home until needed.

 

A much more accurate statistic is the number of US passports that are actually used each year. And according to the US state department, that number is only 3.5%. So, doing simple math, 300,000 out of 3, 970,118 amounts to about 7.6% of US passports that are actually used each year are lost. That is a relatively high percentage. 

Your math assumes that all lost, misplaced or stolen are while in use - good chance that most of the misplaced were not while in use!

[SantaFeFan]

40 minutes ago, NantahalaCruiser said:

Your math assumes that all lost, misplaced or stolen are while in use - good chance that most of the misplaced were not while in use!

 

Common sense would say that a passport that is not being used is rarely at risk of being lost. Sure, it can be put away somewhere at home and then the owner forgets where they put it, but I really don't think that happens often enough to make much of a difference in the statistics. They certainly don't walk away on their own, decompose into a pile of dust or disappear into thin air like magic, so to claim that they are lost while not in use is a huge stretch of the imagination. 

[sparks1093]

7 hours ago, Shmoo here said:

Not recent, but I lost my passport while traveling in Germany.  Luckily we were in Munich (big city = US consulate).  Had to go to Consulate, with new pictures (I had extras made when original passport was issued) and get an emergency passport.  I had to have someone verify that I was a US citizen and that I was traveling in Europe.  Most of the time (for most people) that could require them contacting someone "back home" and getting that information.  Happily, my mother was with me, and still had her passport, so she could sign the paper attesting to that.

 

Took about 2 days, but I got the new passport.

 

Taking a picture of your passport may help, but they still have to do the same processing, as far as I know.

 

 

The State Department website says in order to get a replacement passport you need to provide proof of citizenship and a copy of your old passport meets that requirement.

[SRF]

18 hours ago, SantaFeFan said:

 

Common sense would say that a passport that is not being used is rarely at risk of being lost. Sure, it can be put away somewhere at home and then the owner forgets where they put it, but I really don't think that happens often enough to make much of a difference in the statistics. They certainly don't walk away on their own, decompose into a pile of dust or disappear into thin air like magic, so to claim that they are lost while not in use is a huge stretch of the imagination. 

 

Really?

You have never lost something in your house?   Maybe technically you still have it, but if you cannot put your hands on it, it doesn't matter if it is in your house or on the moon.  You cannot use it.

 

Or, have you never had something get thrown out by mistake?  Something that was in a stack of some trash or in some box or package and not seen when it was thrown out?

 

Must be nice to be so perfect.

[SRF]

19 hours ago, PTMary said:

A much more accurate statistic is the number of US passports that are actually used each year. And according to the US state department, that number is only 3.5%. So, doing simple math, 300,000 out of 3, 970,118 amounts to about 7.6% of US passports that are actually used each year are lost. That is a relatively high percentage. 

 

Where do you get the statistic?

 

US Department of State would have NO idea of how many passports are used.  They have nothing to do with leaving or entering the country.  That would be Customs and Border Protection.

 

Here is a number I found:

 

In 2016, a total of 66,960,943 U.S. citizens traveled outside the country, compared to the 61,783,913 who did the previous year. And just where were they going?

 

A bit more than your 3.9 million.

[SantaFeFan]

29 minutes ago, SRF said:

 

Really?

You have never lost something in your house?   Maybe technically you still have it, but if you cannot put your hands on it, it doesn't matter if it is in your house or on the moon.  You cannot use it.

 

Or, have you never had something get thrown out by mistake?  Something that was in a stack of some trash or in some box or package and not seen when it was thrown out?

 

Must be nice to be so perfect.

 

Speaking for me, yes, I have misplaced things at home. But, in all honesty, that actually doesn't happen very often. Maybe a half eaten candy bar. A note on a scrap of paper. The pencil I was using earlier in the day. But, I can say with absolute confidence that I have never misplaced something as important as a passport. And I will bet that it is exceedingly rare that a person would misplace and lose their passport. 

 

I just don't think people are as careless and dumb as you clearly think they are. 

[jocap]

Um, yes, one dumb person in this house took a photo copy of his passport, and frantically searched the house for that passport for days. Needing to copy a document, he opened the photocopier....:D

[ilikeanswers]

On 2/1/2019 at 3:02 AM, notalandlover said:

I would like to hear about what others in this community have done when their passport has been lost.  I take a picture of it for my phone and email a copy of myself.  I wonder if that matters when overseas and its lost.

 

I do wonder if a phone picture of your passport is good enough if you have to go to a sister embassy? If there anyone who has had the experience of losing their passport in country that does not have their country's embassy or consulate? I would love to hear the experiences of what it was like in those circumstances.

[SRF]

8 hours ago, ilikeanswers said:

 

I do wonder if a phone picture of your passport is good enough if you have to go to a sister embassy? If there anyone who has had the experience of losing their passport in country that does not have their country's embassy or consulate? I would love to hear the experiences of what it was like in those circumstances.

 

Sister Embassy????

 

The second, you should ask your Foreign Ministry about how they would handle that.   Especially difficult if you have to fly to another country to get to an Embassy or Consulate.

[kerryincork]

On 1/31/2019 at 11:16 PM, SantaFeFan said:

 

Common sense would say that a passport that is not being used is rarely at risk of being lost. Sure, it can be put away somewhere at home and then the owner forgets where they put it, but I really don't think that happens often enough to make much of a difference in the statistics. They certainly don't walk away on their own, decompose into a pile of dust or disappear into thin air like magic, so to claim that they are lost while not in use is a huge stretch of the imagination. 

Not necessarily true. One of my friends lost her passport the week of her vacation. She missed her vacation and had to get a new passport.

 

She found it a few months later when she found it in her scanner/printer 😣

[SantaFeFan]

31 minutes ago, kerryincork said:

Not necessarily true. One of my friends lost her passport the week of her vacation. She missed her vacation and had to get a new passport.

 

She found it a few months later when she found it in her scanner/printer 😣

 

23 hours ago, jocap said:

Um, yes, one dumb person in this house took a photo copy of his passport, and frantically searched the house for that passport for days. Needing to copy a document, he opened the photocopier....:D

 

Well, if they found them in the photocopier, they weren't lost, were they? 😉

 

Misplaced would be a better word. Still caused problems, but not really lost. 😁

[ilikeanswers]

1 hour ago, SRF said:

 

Sister Embassy????

 

Sorry I forgot it might not commonly use term 😳. It is the embassy you would go to if your own country has no consular representation in the country you are visiting. I'm just curious how it went for people who had to do that, was it easy or awfully complicated to use another country's consular services?

Edited February 2, 2019 by ilikeanswers

[kerryincork]

20 minutes ago, SantaFeFan said:

 

 

Well, if they found them in the photocopier, they weren't lost, were they? 😉

  

Misplaced would be a better word. Still caused problems, but not really lost. 😁

My point was she reported her passport missing so would make up part of the official statistics. Pretty sure she wasn't the only one.

[K32682]

When not in use my passport is in the same place in my home, a safe. 

 

When traveling the passport is carried securely on my person.  My trust of hotel safes is not high. 

[SRF]

On 2/2/2019 at 5:21 PM, ilikeanswers said:

 

Sorry I forgot it might not commonly use term 😳. It is the embassy you would go to if your own country has no consular representation in the country you are visiting. I'm just curious how it went for people who had to do that, was it easy or awfully complicated to use another country's consular services?

 

I have never heard of using another Embassy for Consular services.

 

Might be possible with Commonwealth countries, but not most others.

[Elaine5715]

On 2/2/2019 at 7:59 AM, ilikeanswers said:

 

I do wonder if a phone picture of your passport is good enough if you have to go to a sister embassy? If there anyone who has had the experience of losing their passport in country that does not have their country's embassy or consulate? I would love to hear the experiences of what it was like in those circumstances.

Download the Mobile Passport app

[jagsfan]

3 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

Download the Mobile Passport app

 I don’t know how that would help. 

I always still have to show my passport. The app only gets me in the short line. 

[ilikeanswers]

4 hours ago, SRF said:

 

I have never heard of using another Embassy for Consular services.

 

Might be possible with Commonwealth countries, but not most others.

 

Well I am from a Commonwealth country so perhaps that is why I am familiar with the system🤣. I guess I foolishly assumed every country had some sort of partnership agreement. It is good to learn new things 😉.