Have you lost your passport? Has it been stolen? Don’t worry because there are remedies to both situations. If you want to know how to replace a lost or stolen USA passport, then you have come to the right place. We’ll be showing you how to do this in the succeeding paragraphs.
But before you even go to have your lost or stolen passport replaced, you need to report its loss immediately. You can do this by filling up a Form DS-64, which is a statement on the loss or theft of your US passport. This is an important step that you need to go through before having your passport replaced. Another option would be to call the Department of State in their toll-free numbers. Or if you lose your passport in another country, contact the US Embassy or Consulate nearest you as soon as possible.
When filling up your Form DS-64, make sure that you fill in every item correctly and exhaustively. This may also require you to remember details that surround the loss of your passport. Fill in any detail that you think will be helpful in replacing your passport. Once you are done with this step, you can then send the form to the Passport Services office of the US State Department.
Let’s say you lose a passport that’s still valid at the time of the loss. What would you do next? You will be required to have your new passport replaced. To seek a replacement, you will have to personally submit your DS-64 along with a DS-11 form to the acceptance facility or passport agency. The DS-11 is what you’ll fill in to apply for a replacement passport.
Your passport is invalidated once it’s been reported stolen. Because of this, you will no longer be able to use that passport in case you are able to recover it. Another thing you should keep in mind is that you may no longer request an already invalidated passport to be revalidated. It will therefore be necessary for you to apply for a new passport.
In cases where you are able to recover your passport, you need to submit it to the US Department of State’s Passport Services office. You can have your recovered passport canceled and returned to you, upon request. Should you not request its return, the office will then destroy your recovered passport.
Keep in mind that when applying for a new passport, you would need to appear in person at the acceptance facility. Aside from that, make sure that all the required forms are properly filled in before you even visit the passport agency’s office. That said, you should check if your passport photos are already attached, and that the other pieces of information required from you are filled in. This saves you a lot of time, and frees you from the hassle of going back and forth to offices just to fulfill all the requirements.
Now that you know how to replace a lost or stolen pasport, let’s sum things up a bit to wrap everything up. First, you need to report the loss of your pasport immediately. You can either fill in the DS-64 form, call a toll-free number, or the nearest Consulate or Embassy, depending on your case. Once you’ve reported your loss, that’s only the time you can request for a replacement passport.