Losing your passport can be expensive and time consuming. Find out exactly what your travel insurance will cover and what it won’t.
Losing your passport can be expensive and stressful, but your travel insurance is there to help.
Most policies will offer some cover for the cost of getting an emergency travel document.
Applying for an emergency travel document costs £100, while replacing an adult passport when you get home costs from £75.50 online and £85 by post.
You might also need to pay for transportation to the embassy or consulate, new passport photos and any replacement visas you might need.
You’ll usually be covered for the costs of getting an ETD. But your travel insurance probably won’t cover the cost of replacing your passport when you return to the UK.
For policies that do cover the cost of getting a new passport, insurers will expect that you treated your lost passport as a valuable and kept it safe - you won’t be covered if your passport gets stolen when left unattended.
This includes your passport being left in a locked, parked car, though there might be an exception if the passport was well hidden.
According to Defaqto[1]
If your passport is lost or stolen, you’ll need to:
Keep receipts for any expenses you have, so your insurance company can reimburse them when you get home.
No. Although the term is commonly used to refer to an ETD, there’s no such thing as an ‘emergency passport’.
An ETD is not a substitute for an actual passport - it’s only valid to get you to a specified destination. UK border staff usually keep your ETD so it can’t be used again.
If you lose your passport while you’re in the UK, you can apply for a passport urgently, as long as you have a valid reason why you need to get your passport faster than normal.
You can’t apply for a passport urgently if you’re outside the UK.
You must check your passport validity well in advance of travelling and renew it now if you need to.
On the day you travel, your passport will need to:
If you don’t renew your passport to meet these criteria, you won't be allowed to travel to EU countries as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
If you have an Irish passport, you can continue using it as long as it covers the length of your stay.
[1]Last checked 18 August 2022