What to do if you lose your passport in India

Go to the police station with jurisdiction over the place the passport went missing and get a written report the same day. Whether the entry is recorded as a theft or as a lost article changes which register it sits in, but it does not change what the passport office asks for afterwards — a police report you can hand over in original. Delay is the enemy here, because everything downstream is dated from that report, and a report filed three weeks after the loss invites the obvious question about the gap.

Make sure the lost passport number is written into the report itself. Indian missions state that requirement in terms: the High Commission of India in Wellington requires that the lost Indian passport number be written in the police report, and the Embassy of India in Paris asks for a copy of the police report with the passport number mentioned in the FIR. A report that describes "one Indian passport" without a number is materially weaker paper, and getting the number added later means going back to the station.

If you cannot recall the number, reconstruct it before you go rather than after. Old visa stickers, airline itineraries, the photocopy a hotel or a bank took, a scan sitting in an old email, the copy a previous employer filed for a work permit — any of these carry the number and the date of issue. The instruction booklet also lists, as document 29 for this case, a self-attested photocopy of the first two and last two pages of the old passport, including the ECR or Non-ECR page, where that is available.

Ask the station for more than one signed copy at the time of reporting. The passport office wants the report in original — it is document 28 in the booklet's overall list of documents, and it appears against the lost and stolen case. Missions retain the report on file, and the Embassy of India in Paris says as much. Assume you will not get your original back, and that a second original obtained weeks later will cost you a return trip and an explanation.

Practice on how a loss is recorded varies from state to state, and several state police forces now accept an online report for lost documents. That is genuinely useful for the acknowledgement it produces on the same day, but it is not automatically the same thing as the original police report the passport office asks for, and it is not the same thing as an FIR. Check what your state's service actually issues before you rely on a printout as your only piece of paper.

Where the passport was lost away from home — on a train, at an airport, in another state entirely — the report will come from the station with jurisdiction there, while the address the passport office verifies is the address on your application. Those are two separate places doing two separate jobs, and neither substitutes for the other. Keep both clear in your head, because a police report from Pune and a verification address in Patna is a normal combination, not a problem.

If the passport was lost outside India the route is different and this page is not it. You approach the nearest Indian mission, which can issue an emergency certificate permitting one-way travel to India where the loss is combined with an urgent need to travel, and a new passport is then applied for separately. The Consulate General of India in San Francisco sets that sequence out, including the point that a new passport is needed for the return journey.

The Passport Seva instruction booklet lists a lost passport among the reasons for re-issue, alongside expiry, exhaustion of pages, change of particulars and damage. On the application you mark re-issue at column 1.2 and specify the reason, and the booklet directs you to Table 2 to find the document set for the exact category you fall into. Marking this as a fresh application because the old booklet is gone is a real and common error that sends the file down the wrong document path.

The booklet is also explicit that for re-issue, the details of the latest held, existing, lost or damaged passport must be furnished in column 6.1 of the application form. That is where the number of the missing passport goes. If you genuinely cannot establish the number from any surviving record, say so rather than guessing, because a wrong number in column 6.1 pulls up somebody else's file or none at all.

For the lost, stolen or damaged-beyond-recognition case — Case D in Table 2 — the booklet asks for document 1, proof of current address; document 2, proof of date of birth; document 28, the police report in original; document 29, the self-attested photocopy of the old passport's first two and last two pages if it is available; and document 49, the affidavit as per Annexure F. It then adds a note that other documents have to be submitted as per the case, as in the case of a fresh passport.

That last note is the sleeper. It means the evidence burden falls back to fresh-application level: you are being asked to prove identity, date of birth and current address from scratch, because the booklet you would normally have produced as proof of everything is gone. If you intend to claim Non-ECR status, you need the documentary proof of the qualifying category, exactly as a first-time applicant would. Assemble as though you had never held a passport, and the appointment goes quickly.

Submit at a Passport Seva Kendra or a Post Office Passport Seva Kendra. The booklet states that while PSKs offer all kinds of passport services, only fresh passport applications are accepted at district passport cells, select speed post centres and citizen service centres. A lost-passport re-issue is not a fresh application, so those smaller counters cannot take it, however convenient they are.

One small saving: a photograph is not required for applications submitted at a PSK or POPSK, because your photograph and biometrics are captured at the counter. The booklet's photograph specifications apply to applications lodged at DPCs, speed post centres and citizen service centres — and since those centres cannot take this case, you can leave the photo studio out of your list.

On fees, treat this as its own head rather than assuming the ordinary re-issue rate. The booklet's fee schedule carries separate entries for replacement of a passport in lieu of a lost, damaged or stolen passport, split by booklet size and validity, distinct from the fresh and re-issue heads and from the change-of-particulars heads. Amounts move, so take the current figure from the Passport Seva fee calculator rather than from any page, including this one.

Before you book the appointment, run your exact facts through the Passport Seva document advisor for re-issue. Your case may carry extras the general list does not — a minor applicant, a government employee, a name that has changed since the lost booklet was issued, or a Non-ECR claim — and the advisor is the authoritative answer for your combination in a way that a general checklist is not.

Document 49 in the booklet is described as an affidavit stating how and where the passport got lost or damaged, in the form of Annexure F. Annexure F is titled a specimen declaration of the applicant for obtaining a passport in lieu of a lost or damaged passport, and it is signed by the applicant. Passport Seva separately publishes Annexure L, a specimen affidavit for the same purpose covering the same six points, which is to be executed on non-judicial stamp paper of minimum value in the presence of a First Class Judicial Magistrate, an Executive Magistrate or a Notary Public.

The two documents ask identical questions, so the practical difference is execution rather than content. Missions abroad ask for Annexure F by name — the Embassy of India in Riyadh, the High Commission in Wellington and the Embassy in Paris all list it. If you are told at a counter that a notarised affidavit is expected rather than a plain declaration, Annexure L is the specimen to take to the notary, and the six points you fill in are the same either way.

Point one asks how and when the passport was lost or damaged, when the report was lodged and at which police station, and how many passports were lost or damaged earlier. That last clause is the one people skim past. It is a direct question about your history with the document, it is answered on oath, and the passport office already holds the record against which your answer will be read.

Point two asks whether you travelled on the lost or damaged passport and, if so, the flight number, the date and the port of entry into India. Point three asks whether you availed of any transfer of residence concessions or free allowance and the details. Point four asks, for a non-resident Indian, the countries of residence with dates and the page numbers of the passport bearing departure and arrival stamps — which is why the photocopy of the old booklet is worth having even when it is only "if available".

Point five asks whether the passport had any objection by the passport issuing authority and the details, and point six asks whether you were ever deported at the expense of the Government and whether that expenditure was reimbursed. Neither applies to most applicants, but both are on the form because they are the histories that would change how a replacement is treated, and leaving them blank rather than answering "no" reads as evasion.

The declaration closes with an undertaking in the applicant's own voice: that you will take utmost care of the passport if issued, and that the Government will be at liberty to take any legal action under the Passports Act, 1967, if the lapse is repeated. That sentence is not decoration. It is the hook on which a second or third loss is dealt with, and it is why the earlier-losses question exists.

Do not be tempted to smooth the story. Section 12(1)(b) of the Passports Act, 1967 makes it an offence to knowingly furnish false information or suppress material information with a view to obtaining a passport, punishable with imprisonment which may extend to two years or a fine which may extend to five thousand rupees, or both. Section 10(3)(b) separately allows the passport authority to impound or revoke a passport obtained by suppression of material information — and where the holder has obtained another passport, the proviso requires that one to be impounded or revoked too.

This is the section that reshapes your calendar. The instruction booklet says that in most cases of re-issue, depending on the records available in the Passport Office system, police verification would not be required or only post police verification would be required — and then names the exceptions: re-issue of a passport in lieu of a lost passport, or a complete change of name. A loss puts you squarely in the pre-verification group.

Compare that with the ordinary case to see what you have lost. The booklet says you can apply for re-issue up to ten years before expiry, or within three years after expiry, without fresh police verification, provided there is a clear police report in respect of your previous passport and no adverse entry in the system. That concession is built on the existence of a verified prior file attached to a booklet you can produce. A loss breaks that chain, and the verification runs again.

The dispatch table in the booklet makes the consequence concrete. Where verification is not required, the passport is expected to be dispatched on the third working day excluding the date of submission. Where post-verification applies, it is dispatched on the third working day without waiting for the report. Where pre-verification applies, it is expected to be dispatched within three working days of receipt of a recommendatory police verification report — not counting the date that report arrives. Your timeline is therefore the police's timeline, not the passport office's.

Tatkaal is closed to you. In Table 2, the lost, stolen or damaged-beyond-recognition case carries the marking "Cannot apply under Tatkaal Scheme" in the Tatkaal column. The Embassy of India in Riyadh says the same thing from the other direction: Tatkal is not available for lost and stolen passports, while a damaged passport can be processed under Tatkal there at a surcharge. There is no fee that converts a loss into an urgent case.

The booklet also warns that in complex cases — it names adoption, a minor with a single parent, a major change in name, a duplicate passport and doubtful documentation — the processing time will be approximately thirty days excluding the date of submission. A lost-passport replacement sits in that bucket. The Consulate General of India in San Francisco makes a similar observation from the consular side, that processing depends on obtaining a clear police verification report from the authorities in India and typically runs beyond thirty days while verification is pending.

Everything in your control comes down to the address. The police verify the address written on the application, so it has to be the place you actually live and the place someone can be found during working hours. Keep a copy of the proof of address you filed, so that what you tell the verifying officer matches what the passport office holds, and answer the station's calls — a failed visit is recorded as an incomplete verification, which stalls the file just as effectively as an adverse one.

Keep the file number and the appointment receipt from the day you submit. Every escalation route, every status query and every grievance reference is keyed to it, and reconstructing it later from memory is far harder than photographing the printout on the way out of the centre.

Finally, do not book non-refundable travel against an assumed date. With no Tatkaal available and issue waiting on a verification report, the honest planning assumption is a month or more, and longer if the address needs a second visit.

The booklet splits damage into two states, and the split decides your entire experience. A passport may be damaged beyond recognition, or damaged but recognisable — which the booklet defines as the passport number being readable, the name legible and the photograph intact. Those three tests are the whole distinction, and everything else follows from which side of them your booklet falls.

A recognisable damaged passport is Case C. The documents are proof of current address if the address differs from the old passport, proof of date of birth, the old passport in original with a self-attested photocopy of its first two and last two pages, and the Annexure F affidavit. Crucially, Case C is not excluded from Tatkaal — the same document set appears in the Tatkaal column, so an urgent replacement of a damaged but readable booklet is possible in a way it is not for a loss.

A passport damaged beyond recognition is Case D, sharing a row with lost and stolen passports. That means a police report in original, no Tatkaal, and pre-issuance verification. The Consulate General of India in San Francisco describes the same two-tier classification from the consular side — minor damage where the number is readable, the name legible and the photo intact, against damage beyond recognition, mutilation or washed-out entries.

The practical implication of a test built on three specific features is that you should stop handling the booklet the moment it is damaged. Water, heat and further tearing attack exactly the things being tested — the printed number, the name and the photograph. A passport that came out of a washing machine and dried flat may still be Case C; the same passport rubbed, ironed or taped may not be.

Do not attempt a repair. Nothing in the document set rewards a mended booklet, and the Annexure F declaration asks you to state how the passport was damaged, so improvised restoration is both visible and reportable. Take the damaged passport to the appointment as it is — the Embassy of India in Riyadh confirms the original damaged passport itself is required with a damaged-passport application.

The booklet's own opening instruction sets the standard it expects: a passport is a very valuable document, holders are required to take due care that it does not get damaged, mutilated or lost, and passports should not be sent out to any country by post or courier. That last clause catches people who mail a booklet to a visa agent or a family member overseas and lose it in transit, which is treated as a loss like any other.

If you are genuinely unsure which category you are in, assume the worse one and go to the police station first. A police report you did not strictly need costs you an afternoon; discovering at the counter that your booklet has been classified as damaged beyond recognition without a report in hand costs you the appointment.

The first thing that changes is the number. The Consulate General of India in San Francisco states that a lost passport is re-issued with a new passport number, with ten years' validity for an adult. The number in the missing booklet stops being your travel document, and every future application, visa and record attaches to the new one. That is why column 6.1 exists — it is the bridge between the dead number and the live one.

The second thing that protects you is the police report, and it protects you evidentially rather than technically. It fixes a date and a place at which you told the state the passport left your possession. Missions retain the report on file with the application, which means the record sits in two places. If the booklet surfaces later in someone else's hands, that dated report is the document that separates you from whatever was done with it.

The Passports Act, 1967 does the rest of the work. Section 12(1)(d) makes it an offence to knowingly use a passport or travel document issued to another person, and section 12(1)(e) makes it an offence to knowingly allow another person to use a passport issued to you. Both are punishable with imprisonment which may extend to two years or a fine which may extend to five thousand rupees, or both. Section 12(1)(b) covers altering, or attempting to alter, the entries made in a passport.

Section 10(3)(a) is the provision that speaks directly to a booklet in the wrong hands: the passport authority may impound or cause to be impounded, or revoke, a passport where it is satisfied that the holder is in wrongful possession of it. Section 10(9) then requires that on revocation the holder surrender the document without delay to the prescribed authority. Whoever ends up holding your lost booklet is holding a document the state can call in.

Treat the loss as wider than the passport if the booklet was in a bag or a wallet with other identity documents. A passport carries your name, date of birth, photograph, signature, address and parents' names on the same two pages — enough raw material for document fraud on its own, and considerably more if a PAN card, an Aadhaar letter or a driving licence went with it. Deal with each of those on its own track rather than assuming the passport report covers them.

If you are contacted by someone offering to return the passport for money, route it through the police station where you filed the report rather than negotiating privately. Recovery of a lost passport does not restore it as a travel document once a replacement has been applied for, and the exchange puts you in a room with a person in wrongful possession of a government document.

Keep your own copies from now on. A scan of the first two and last two pages, stored somewhere you can reach without your phone, converts a total loss into an inconvenience: it gives you the number for the police report, the ECR or Non-ECR status for the application, and the visa page images you will need for whichever mission issued them.

A visa is an endorsement in a specific booklet, so when the booklet goes, the physical visa goes with it. Whether it can be transferred to the new passport or has to be applied for again is a decision for the country that issued it, and the answer varies widely by country and visa type. Start that conversation with the issuing mission as soon as you have the police report, in parallel with the passport application rather than after it.

This is where scans earn their keep. The Embassy of India in Paris, for example, requires a copy of the valid visa alongside a lost-passport application, and foreign missions handling a transfer will generally want to see the visa they issued. A photograph of every visa page taken on the day the visa was granted is the cheapest insurance available against exactly this situation.

A repeat loss is treated differently, and the paperwork says so before anyone at a counter does. Annexure F asks how many passports were lost or damaged earlier, and the declaration ends with an express affirmation that the Government will be at liberty to take legal action under the Passports Act, 1967 if the lapse is repeated. Section 12(4) of the Act provides that a person convicted of an offence under the Act who is again convicted is punishable with double the penalty provided for the later offence.

Expect a second loss to be handled as a complex case. The booklet's thirty-day complex-case bucket expressly includes duplicate passports and doubtful documentation, and a file with two losses on it is a file that will be read carefully. Answer the earlier-losses question completely, attach both police reports if you have them, and do not attempt to present the second loss as a first.

If the file stalls, work out first whether the delay is at the passport office or with the police. Because a loss case waits on a recommendatory verification report, a status that has not moved for weeks usually means the verification has not been completed — often because the officer could not find anyone at the address. Confirm the address on the application, make sure someone is available, and follow up with the local police station before escalating anywhere else.

When escalation is needed, use the tracked routes. Passport Seva runs a national call centre and publishes a dedicated FAQ set for lost and damaged passports; the Ministry of External Affairs owns the policy end; and CPGRAMS, the centralised public grievance system, takes service-delivery grievances against central government departments and carries a built-in appeal where you rate the resolution as poor. For a consular matter or an application through a mission abroad, MADAD is the Ministry's own consular grievance portal.

Two habits make the next loss survivable. Keep the new passport number, date and place of issue somewhere separate from the booklet, and never post or courier a passport out of the country — the instruction booklet says so directly, and a booklet lost in transit is a loss case with the added difficulty of explaining why it was in the post.

And when the new passport arrives, check it against your other records the same week. A replacement issued after a loss is built from documents rather than from the old booklet, so a middle name, a spelling or a place of birth can shift in the process. Corrections are a change-of-particulars re-issue, and they are far easier to raise immediately than after the passport has been used for a visa.