Verified against official sources — 31 Oct 2026
Lost Your Passport in the USA? What Replaces What — and Why a Visa Cannot Be Reissued Inside the USA
NEW Published 31 October 2026
Three documents, three different owners: which one your own embassy replaces, which one survives online, and which one can only be issued again abroad.
First, your stay is not over: if you are a foreign citizen temporarily in the United States and you lose your U.S. visa, the State Department says you can remain for the duration of your authorised stay, as shown on your admission stamp or paper Form I-94. Then take the steps in order: report the documents lost or stolen at the local police station and keep an extra copy of the police report; contact the embassy or consular section of your own country for the procedure to replace the passport; and email the Consular Section of the U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad that issued your visa to report the visa lost or stolen. Your I-94 record can be printed from the CBP I-94 website. But the visa itself is gone: lost or stolen U.S. visas cannot be replaced in the United States — for a replacement, you must apply in person at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad, with a written account of the loss and a copy of the police report.
SECTION 01Three Documents, Three Owners: What You Actually Lost
The State Department's lost-documents page opens by grouping the three together: passports, visas and arrival/departure records — the admission stamp or paper Form I-94 — are official travel documents that foreign citizens coming to the United States must have in their possession to show their country of citizenship and legal status in the United States. They look like one bundle because two of them live in the same booklet. They are not one bundle.
The passport is a travel document issued by your country of citizenship — the State Department's visa page makes the same point in reverse, noting that a U.S. visa is placed in the traveller's passport, a travel document issued by the traveller's country of citizenship. Only that country can issue you another one.
The visa is the U.S. government's permission to travel to a port of entry and ask to enter. Having a U.S. visa allows you to travel to a port of entry, airport or land border crossing, and request permission of the DHS Customs and Border Protection inspector to enter the United States; a visa does not guarantee entry, but it does indicate that a consular officer at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad determined you were eligible to seek entry for that specific purpose. The inspectors, not the consulate, are responsible for admission — for a specified status and period of time.
The I-94 is the record of that admission, and it is the document your stay is measured from. It is also the one you probably did not physically lose, because for most arrivals it was never printed: CBP now gathers travellers' arrival and departure information automatically from their electronic travel records.
The State Department encourages travellers to make a copy of their passport biographic page, their U.S. visa and their admission stamp or paper Form I-94, if provided, as soon as possible after arrival in the United States. Almost every step below is easier with those copies — the police ask for them, the consulate asks for them, and a replacement application needs the details only they hold. If you are reading this with your passport still in hand, stop and make the copies first.
SECTION 02Your Authorised Stay Does Not End With the Loss
The fear to deal with first is the wrong one. Losing the documents does not cancel your permission to be here. The State Department states it directly: if you are a foreign citizen temporarily in the United States, and you lose your U.S. visa, you can remain for the duration of your authorised stay, as shown on your admission stamp or paper Form I-94, Arrival/Departure Record. Your stay was granted at admission, by the CBP inspector, for a specified status and period of time — the visa's job was to get you to that inspector, and it was already done.
Two limits follow from the same page. First, the stay ends when the authorised period ends, loss or no loss — a lost visa extends nothing, and this guide's companion piece on visas versus status explains how to read the date that controls your stay. Second, leaving is its own problem: you will need a valid passport to depart the United States and to enter another country. A person can be lawfully present and still be unable to travel until the passport is replaced, which is why the replacement steps below should start immediately even though there is no emergency about the stay itself.
One document has a harder rule. If you were issued a paper Form I-94 and it was lost or stolen, the State Department says you must get it replaced immediately. Section 06 covers how — and why most travellers, admitted electronically, will never need that step.
SECTION 03Step 1: Report It to the Local Police
The State Department's first numbered step is the police. Go to the local police station and report your document(s) lost or stolen. If available, you will need to provide copies of the original documents — this is where the copies from Section 01 earn their keep. You will be issued a police report detailing the incident.
The page adds one instruction people forget: don't forget to make an extra copy of the report for your own records. The police report is not a formality. It is evidence you will use again — the State Department tells replacement-visa applicants to include a copy of it with their application, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) asks for a copy of the police report when a stolen I-94 is replaced through its Form I-102. Get the report, and keep more than one copy of it, before you move to the next step.
SECTION 04Step 2: Your Own Embassy Replaces the Passport
Replacing the passport is not a U.S. process, and no U.S. agency can do it for you. The State Department's instruction is one sentence: contact the local embassy or consular section for the country of your citizenship for information about the procedure to replace a lost or stolen passport. Most countries, the page notes, have internet websites with contact information.
What this guide deliberately does not do is describe your country's procedure. Each government sets its own forms, evidence and timelines for a replacement passport, and they differ too much for a general guide to state safely. The U.S. side of the step is only this: the police report from Step 1 documents the loss, and your consulate will tell you what else it needs. Expect the replacement passport to arrive as a new, empty document — which raises the question the next two sections answer: what happened to the visa that was in the old one?
SECTION 05Step 3: Report the Visa to the Consulate That Issued It
The visa is reported to the United States, but not inside it. To report your visa lost or stolen, the State Department says, email the Consular Section at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate outside the United States which issued your visa — go to that embassy or consulate's website to locate the email address and contact information. There is no U.S.-based office and no online portal for this report; the email goes to the issuing post, wherever in the world it is.
The page specifies what the email should contain. Be sure to include your full name, date of birth, place of birth, address in the United States, and an email address, if available. Specifically state whether the visa was lost or stolen. If you have a copy of the passport or visa, scan and email this to the embassy or consulate; otherwise, if known, report the category of visa and the passport number from the lost or stolen passport.
If you have already reported your visa lost or stolen to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate, and then you later find your misplaced visa, that visa will be invalid for future travel to the United States. In that situation you must apply for a new visa at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate. Report promptly — the report is what protects you if the document is misused — but understand that it cannot be un-reported if the passport turns up in a drawer.
SECTION 06The I-94 Survives: Your Admission Record Is Electronic
Of the three documents, the I-94 needs the least from you, because you were never its custodian. CBP explains that foreign visitors to the U.S. no longer need to complete a paper CBP Form I-94 Arrival/Departure Record, and that those who need to prove their legal-visitor status — to employers, schools and universities, or government agencies — can access their CBP arrival/departure record information online. At the land border the same change applies: travellers are issued I-94s electronically and no longer receive a paper I-94 stub.
If you would like a paper Form I-94, you can print your own from the I-94 website using "Get Most Recent I-94", or by using the same option on the CBP Link mobile application. And if you need the information from your admission record to verify immigration status or employment authorisation, CBP encourages you to get your I-94 number from the I-94 website or the app. The lost passport does not touch any of this: the record was gathered from CBP's electronic travel records, and it still shows the status and the admit-until date you were given at entry.
The exception is the traveller who genuinely holds a paper I-94 — the group the State Department says must get it replaced immediately. Replacement of a lost or stolen Form I-94 falls under the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and USCIS's Form I-102 is the application for a new or replacement Form I-94 or Form I-95 for a nonimmigrant. The I-102 checklist shows how the steps interlock: if your Form I-94 was lost or stolen, you submit a copy of the biographic page of your passport and a copy of the page indicating your admission as claimed, or other evidence of your identity or claimed admission — and if your passport is unavailable, a letter explaining why; if the form or your passport was stolen, you submit a copy of the police report, or a letter explaining why a police report is not available. Note the boundary USCIS draws in the other direction: if you were admitted at an air or sea port and received an electronic Form I-94, you should go to CBP's Form I-94 webpage to get a paper version, including a replacement — no I-102 is needed. The I-102's filing fee is not printed in this guide; USCIS publishes it on its Fee Schedule page, which the form page points to.
SECTION 07Why a Visa Cannot Be Reissued Inside the USA
Here is the rule whole, in the State Department's own words: lost or stolen U.S. visas cannot be replaced in the United States. For replacement of a visa, you must apply in person at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad. When applying for the replacement of a visa, you will need to provide a written account documenting the loss of your passport and visa — and, the page adds, include a copy of the police report.
The rule follows from what a visa is. A visa is determined abroad: it indicates that a consular officer at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad has determined you are eligible to seek entry for a specific purpose, and it is placed in a passport issued by your own country. Inside the United States, the roles sit elsewhere — CBP inspectors control admission, and DHS has responsibility for immigration matters while you are present in the United States. So a lost visa cannot be "reissued" the way a lost card is reprinted: the replacement is a new visa application, made in person, at a post abroad, when you next need a visa to travel.
Two consequences deserve plain statement. First, your new passport does not inherit the old visa, and the State Department's guidance describes no transfer step: the visa was in the lost passport, and the only route the guidance gives is the fresh application abroad. Second, the timing is governed by your travel, not by your stay: because the authorised stay continues regardless, many people replace the passport immediately and handle the visa only when a trip abroad is planned. What you cannot do is leave first and fix it later from inside the United States — once you have departed, the application is made at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad, and you will need the new visa before you can travel back.
SECTION 08If the Document You Lost Is a USCIS One Instead
This guide is about a nonimmigrant's passport, visa and I-94. Two neighbouring losses belong to a different counter, and are pointers only. Replacement of a lost or stolen Form I-94, as Section 06 covered, is a DHS matter handled through USCIS Form I-102 — and the State Department's page links travellers to both the USCIS application page and CBP's arrival-departure information for exactly this reason. And a lawful permanent resident who loses a Green Card is not in visa territory at all: USCIS's Form I-90 is the application to replace a Permanent Resident Card — in USCIS's words, use this form to replace your Green Card. Neither route runs through your own embassy, and neither is a consular matter.
FAQFrequently Asked Questions
I lost my passport with my U.S. visa in it. Must I leave the United States?
No. The State Department states that a foreign citizen temporarily in the United States who loses their U.S. visa can remain for the duration of their authorised stay, as shown on the admission stamp or paper Form I-94. What you cannot do is travel: you will need a valid passport to depart the United States and to enter another country, so start the replacement steps — police report, your own embassy, and the report to the issuing consulate — straight away.
Can I get a replacement visa without leaving the United States?
No. Lost or stolen U.S. visas cannot be replaced in the United States. For a replacement you must apply in person at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate abroad, with a written account documenting the loss of your passport and visa and a copy of the police report. The new passport you receive from your own embassy arrives without the visa, and there is no transfer step — the replacement is a new application abroad.
I reported my visa lost, and then I found the passport. Can I use the visa again?
No. The State Department is explicit: if you have already reported your visa lost or stolen to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate and later find your misplaced visa, that visa will be invalid for future travel to the United States, and you must apply for a new visa at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate. This is why the report should be made once you are sure the document is gone.
My paper Form I-94 was in the lost passport. What do I do?
The State Department says a lost or stolen paper Form I-94 must be replaced immediately, and replacement falls under DHS. USCIS Form I-102 is the application for a replacement Form I-94 for a nonimmigrant; its checklist asks for a copy of your passport's biographic page and admission page or other evidence of your identity and admission, a letter if your passport is unavailable, and a copy of the police report if the document was stolen. If your I-94 was electronic — the usual case at air and sea ports — you do not need the form at all: print the record from the CBP I-94 website instead.
Who replaces my passport itself?
Your own country does. The State Department directs you to contact the local embassy or consular section for the country of your citizenship for information about the procedure to replace a lost or stolen passport. The United States cannot reissue a foreign passport — it can only receive your report of the lost visa and, abroad, consider a new visa application.
Official references and verification status
These official references were accessed and checked on 31 October 2026, and this guide's rules were verified claim-by-claim against them (verification record in the accompanying .sources.md file). One honest limit: the Department of State's general visa FAQ page could not be fetched during this check (the URL returned a 404), so no claim rests on it — every State claim below rests on the two State pages that were read in full, and no State passage describing a separate visa "renewal" process was relied on beyond the replacement rule the lost-documents page itself states.
- U.S. Department of State — Lost and Stolen Passports, Visas, and Arrival/Departure Records (Form I-94)
- U.S. Department of State — What is a U.S. Visa?
- U.S. Customs and Border Protection — Arrival/Departure Forms: I-94 (last modified 22 July 2026)
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — I-102, Application for Replacement/Initial Nonimmigrant Arrival-Departure Document (last reviewed 7 October 2026)
- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — I-90, Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card (Green Card)
General information only. This guide is based on official sources publicly available and checked on the date shown on this page. Visa rules change, and consular and USCIS officers decide every case on its own facts — nothing here is a confirmation or a guarantee for your individual case, and this is not legal advice. Always confirm the current requirement on the official page linked in this guide before you act, and consider a qualified immigration attorney for your specific situation.