I Lost My Passport Before a Trip — Here’s How I Got a Replacement Fast

I lost my passport, and if that wasn’t bad enough, it was 3 days before an international trip. It’s not an experience I would recommend.

However, if you find yourself in a similar situation, know that there are ways to get a replacement passport quickly, including same-day or even next-day processing. I’ll share my experience getting a new passport after losing it, as well as a few things I learned along the way.

How I Lost My Passport

I realized I couldn’t find my passport on a Saturday, and I had an international trip scheduled for Tuesday morning, just 72 hours later.

I tore through my house looking for it before resigning myself to the fact that it was gone (my theory is that it got mixed up with something on my desk that got thrown away). Whatever the reason, losing your passport right before a trip is an awful feeling.

The day I discovered my passport was missing was a holiday, so there wasn’t anything I could do until the next day. Dread set in as I feverishly Googled “how to get a new passport in 1 day.”

Booking an Emergency Passport Appointment

After losing my passport, I discovered that it’s possible to get it replaced in as little as 24 hours in some circumstances if you have travel plans within 14 days. This is different than requesting expedited passport processing, which takes 2 to 3 weeks — more on this later.

First, you need to make an appointment at a passport agency either online or by calling 877-487-2778. Walk-ins are not accepted. Since the offices that process same-day passports are scattered across the country, you may need to travel to get to your appointment.

These locations are different than passport acceptance facilities, which can include post offices and local government offices.

Then, you need to fill out your passport application and gather all of your supporting documents to bring to your appointment. These include (but may not be limited to, depending on your situation):

• Proof of travel within 14 days
• DS-11 passport application form (this is the new-passport application form; you can’t do a renewal application if you’ve lost your passport)
• Lost passport form
• Printed confirmation of your appointment
• Passport photo (these can be taken at home, but it’s quicker to go to a store like Staples or CVS that can take a photo and print it out for you).
• Passport fees (payable by credit card, debit card, or contactless payment)
• Evidence of citizenship plus a photocopy (birth certificate)
• Evidence of identification plus a photocopy (driver’s license)
• A second piece of identification if applying out of state (I was planning to use my Global Entry card), plus a photocopy

Sunday morning, I called the passport office to inquire about an emergency appointment. The closest office to me in Detroit didn’t have anything available, but I was able to get an appointment the following morning in Chicago. I hung up and booked a 5:30 a.m. flight for the next morning.

Everything was on track until I got to the passport office in Chicago only to find there was a system outage that ended up lasting all day. After standing in line on the sidewalk all day with over 150 other people, I flew home frustrated and empty-handed.

Applying for an Expedited Passport

Since I wasn’t able to get a same-day passport in Chicago because of the system outage, I had to cancel my trip planned for the next day. However, I had another international trip scheduled just 4 weeks later, so I still needed an expedited passport.

I wasn’t able to get another emergency appointment since I no longer had travel within 14 days. So I decided to submit my application by mail at my local post office. I paid extra for expedited processing and overnight shipping and was quoted 2 to 3 weeks for this expedited passport.

I submitted my application on Wednesday, July 7 and received an email on Wednesday, July 14 informing me that my application was approved and my passport was being printed.

Finally, on Friday, July 16, I received my new passport in the mail, 9 days after submitting an expedited application at the post office.

As soon as I got my new passport, I updated my Global Entry account with my new passport number so I’d be all set for my next international trip.

Final Thoughts

Losing a passport isn’t fun, but it can happen. The good news is that you can get a replacement even if you have international travel within the next 2 weeks.

In fact, it’s possible to get a same-day or next-day passport at some offices with an emergency appointment. If you have more time to work with, you can submit an expedited application to get your passport within 2 to 3 weeks. I got my replacement passport in 9 days using expedited processing and express mail.