What to do if you lose your passport abroad?

Losing your passport abroad is one of the worst troubles a traveler can face. What should you do if you lose your passport or it gets stolen?

In fact, there's nothing terrible about it; there's a way out of every situation. Let's break down your actions in case of passport loss... It doesn't matter if your passport was stolen or you lost it yourself, first of all, contact the police and file a report. At the station, you will receive a certificate confirming your appeal. Firstly, this certificate will help you avoid unnecessary questions at the border when departing or leaving the country; secondly, your documents might be found. After filing a police report, immediately go to the Russian consulate. You need to apply for a certificate of return. This document will replace your passport when crossing the border. It is for this very reason that many travel preparation advice articles state that you should find out and write down the addresses and phone numbers of the Russian consulate in your destination country in advance. As a rule, appointments at the consulate are by prior arrangement, but in this case, they are obliged to accept you without an appointment (but this does not mean without a queue). You need to bring with you:

• 2 photos 3.5×4.5 cm (passport or visa size)
• Russian internal passport
• other documents that can help verify your identity (notarized copy of foreign passport, driver's license, etc.) - these documents are not mandatory.

If you don't have your internal passport with you or it was also stolen, it will be replaced by two statements from Russian citizens confirming your identity. These statements must be provided by them in person. If you are traveling with a group, and only your passport was stolen, your friends can act as witnesses confirming your identity. There are cases when there is no passport and no witnesses; even then, there's no need to despair. You will still receive a certificate, but not as quickly. In this case, the consulate must conduct an additional check to ascertain your identity. For this, they will send a request to the FMS department at your place of residence (where you received your foreign passport) to establish your identity and confirm your Russian citizenship. The FMS, in turn, conducts a check and sends its results back to the consulate. If everything is in order, you will be issued a certificate of return almost immediately. That's all, there's nothing complicated here. Yes, you'll have to be a little nervous, and in the case of an FMS request, wait a few days, but in any case, you definitely won't be left without documents abroad and will return home without problems.