How To Deal With A Lost Passport
If you have lost your passport or it was stolen, make sure that you report it at once to protect yourself from identity fraud. If you have lost your passport in another country, then you should contact the nearest US Embassy or Consulate in the country that you are visiting in. Criminals often take advantage of lost passports, so make sure that you take the necessary precautions.  However, if you were not able to avoid losing your passport, you can always avail of a new one once you have reported that your existing one was missing. There are two steps in replacing a lost passport when you are in the United States. First, you have to fill up a DS-64, which is a statement regarding the loss of one's passport. Make sure to fill up as much as needed regarding some passport information that you need to provide. This is a way to make sure that the information that you have lost in your previous passport will be secured. Make it a point to answer all of the questions in detail because these things are done for you to be secured against identity fraud. You may mail this to the US Department of State.
The information that you entered in Form DS-64 will be entered in Consular Lost/Stolen Passport System, so as the information that you provided will be filed and kept for safety and security purposes. When this is done, there are slim chances for identity frauds to steal the information stored in your lost passport. This is also done in order to invalidate all of the information in the lost passport, and of course, this information may not be used for travel ever again.
However, if you lost your passport but were able to recover it, submit it to the US Department of State. Upon this notice, the US Department of State may cancel the invalidation of your passport information, or, if you also request, they may invalidate the information so that you may apply for a brand new passport. In this way, you will be sure that existing information will be shared with anyone. Passports which are reported to be lost or stolen can never be re-validated again. This is done in order for the person to be protected against frauds that may use the stolen or lost passport for his own use. However, if you have lost your passport and you need to obtain a new one, make sure that you appear in person in a passport agency of acceptance facility in this case. The information in your passport will be safe as long as you report a lost one as soon as possible. They will never be used for travel once you report it to the US Department of State. But at any rate, being careful about your passport is still very important. Make sure that you keep your passport in a safe place in order to avoid getting them lost or stolen.
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