My
son lost his passport in Rome. After panic mode and reporting it to the police,
I had to get an emergency travel document to get us home. My other article
lists other emergency measures to take when losing your passport.
But
in order to get an ETD, this is what I did.
Take
a photo of the person who has lost his or her passport. Like a regular
passport, you will need a head and shoulder view, neutral background, no
shadows and nothing on the face. I managed to take an acceptable photograph
with my camera phone.
Go
onto the gov.uk site and look for the ‘emergency travel document’ link. If you
can’t find it, put 'emergency travel document’ on the search bar and it will
come up.
You
will need your passport number and issue date to hand. Fortunately, I had
written them on a separate sheet of paper.
You
will also need the itinerary of your journey. Your destination can be reached
via up to via 5 countries. Ensure your destination country is named on the
Emergency Travel Document.
You
will be taken onto an ‘apply now’ page as shown by the screenshots at the end
of this article.
Make
sure you have everything you need, for no activity for 20 minutes means you
will have to start again.
You
can apply for yourself or on someone else’s behalf. As my son was over 16, he
filled it in himself but with my guidance.
The
following pages are pretty self-explanatory, asking for your name, address, date
of birth, country of destination etc, as can be seen from the images.
You
will have to upload the passport photo and pay £100 for the document.
As
soon as the application is complete, the missing passport will be void.
You
will now have to wait 2 working days for the emergency travel document to be
ready. Look for a notification email.
I
had the email within two working days, but the consulate in Rome closes at 3pm
so I had to make sure I was there in time.
In
the booth, my personal belongings were put in a locker and I was shown into an
office upstairs. I was then given my son’s emergency passport. He was asked to
sign it. I was then able to book a flight home once at the hotel.
Note:
your emergency travel document is valid only for one journey. It will be taken
from you at your destination country. It can only be used within a specified
time. I took photos of the travel document before the journey, for travel
insurance purposes.
For
more guidance, check www.fco.gov.uk/travel.
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| Pages from the Gov site |
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| The emergency passport |
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| How to sign the ETD |
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| Information leaflet on getting an ETD |
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| Gates to the British Embassy in Rome |
