What to do if your ID is stolen

Leaving our country to visit new places, try new foods, learn about a new culture and meet completely different people is an experience that for many is gratifying and exciting. However, despite the fact that a trip abroad promises to be an incredible experience, there are some events that could make this trip no longer such a pleasant experience, especially when we do not know how to react to these situations, specifically we will refer to the loss of DNI abroad.

And there are times when we spend so much time planning a trip that we make sure we have all our neustra documentation on time and in order, However, we rarely foresee what are some of the situations that can go wrong on our trip, and when the time comes, we do not know how to react to such a situation. That is why we have brought you this helpful guide, so that if you are planning a trip abroad keep the recommendations in mind, and if you are in the If you have lost your ID, know how to act.

One of the main questions that come to our mind just when we realize that we do not have our ID with us is Where is it? And it is a question that will undoubtedly make us remember the last places we were, as well as the last activities we took part in. But in order to remain calm it is important that we think well before acting, in order to react efficiently, but in that case you do not remember absolutely anything about where you left your documentation, do not be alarmed that everything has a solution.

Report this loss or theft

The first thing we must do is assist with the police, with them we can report the theft, or loss of identification document. The reason why we must do this is so that there will be a legal record of why we do not carry our documentation; Another issue is that it will prevent whoever stole or found the document from using it for dishonest purposes.

But the most important thing is that when we do the complaint to the police, They will issue us a legal receipt that will allow us to request a document that will help us to leave the country where we are; Furthermore, once we are with the police, they will be able to provide us with whatever help is necessary from Neustra. But before continuing with this article, we must clarify something, and that is that said receipt will not serve as an identification document, but only as a travel document that authorizes us to be in that country. Let us now look at the next step that we must consider, which is to attend the embassy.

Attend the embassy

The Embassy is by definition a diplomatic mission in which an office serves as a means of representing the government of the country to which the embassy belongs. In other words, it is a government office in our country, which can and should provide us with support and support. In general, the embassies of the countries are located in the capital city of the host country, so we can get an idea of ​​in which city it is located, however, the best and what we recommend the most is that before leaving travel we inform ourselves about the location and the means of contact with our embassy to be able to assist with them in case of any unfortunate event.

If it is the case that we are in another country and we lost our ID and there is no enclosed Spanish embassy, ​​it is possible to attend a diplomatic delegation that belongs to any of the countries belonging to the European Union, and there we will be given the necessary help. Another option in case the previous one is not viable is that we can contact the nearest Spanish embassy (That is in a neighboring country, for example). In these ways we can count on the appropriate support.

If we already locate our embassy or our diplomatic office The following is to go with them, explain our situation and show the receipt that the police gave us, later we will discuss how to carry out this procedure in more detail.

With this, the embassy can support us in two ways, the first way is to issue us a new passport, or the second way to support us is through a safe-conduct that authorizes us to return to Spain; It should be clarified that the validity of the latter is only 48 hours after the process. But it is also important to mention that the embassy cannot issue us a new ID.

The process for process the new passport or the safe conduct It is necessary that we fill out a form that will be provided to us in the same office with our information. Subsequently, it is necessary that we deliver this form and attach the receipt that the police gave us, as well as 2 passport-size photographs, and, finally, a copy of the DNI or a copy of the passport.

Due to the above, it is highly recommended that you make sure to take some copies of your personal identification documents with you for your trip, but if you are already in this situation and do not have a copy, do not worry, this is what you should do.

Instead of a copy of said document, the embassy allows you to present a document proving your identityFor example, it can be a transport voucher or a bank card that has our photograph. But even if we do not have any of these documents, it is possible to do the procedure requesting an affidavit from a Spanish citizen; you just have to make sure that it is properly documented.

Once we are in the embassy we can be much more relaxed knowing that any doubt or situation that arises can be resolved with the help of said embassy. So up to here everything is going well, but this is not over yet, because although we have already solved the issue that we have our ID, The truth is that we still have to stay alert, let's see what matters and how to do it.

Be very careful with this

One of the reasons we have to be vigilant is that either we have lost or stolen our documentation; this may be in the hands of people who are not honest, so there is a possibility that there is a identity fraud. In order to be sure that we are not victims of this, we must do the following.

The first thing we have to do after attending the embassy is to review the movements of our bank accounts. When reviewing this we must pay attention to the fact that there are no movements registered during the last hours, hours in which it is possible that our identity has been impersonated. In the event that there are movements that have not been made by us, we must contact our bank and explain the matter, it is important to mention that in order to take action on this matter we must have our receipt, or complaint; This document is what will help us to carry out the necessary procedures so that our account is protected and that the actions not carried out by us are eliminated.

Safety recommendations for the trip

So far everything seems to be going well, if you are already in this situation, with the above information we can be sure that you will be able to get out of the problem, but in case you are still planning your trip it is important that you take certain considerations to be able to be sure our trip turned out well, here are some safety tips for our trip.

The first thing we must investigate is how safe the country we want to go to is, as well as inform ourselves of the possible places of risk that we must avoid so that we reduce the chances of suffering a mishap; In addition, it is also highly recommended that we register in the travelers registry of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, if we do the latter, all the paperwork that we do during our trip, including the process for a new passport, they will be much easier to carry out.

One of the issues that we must investigate in relation to the place where we will travel is whether in the country to which we are going it is necessary that we always have a identification document on hand; In the event that this is the case, it is necessary to inquire about whether it is possible for us to identify ourselves only with a copy of an official document. In case we have to have our documentation throughout the trip, it is important that we consider having our documents in a bag of our clothes that is attached to our body, so that it is much easier to keep abreast of our documentation.

In the event that it is possible to identify ourselves with a copy, we should preferably keep our documentation in a hotel safe. And for a higher level of security and peace of mind we can keep a copy of our ID in the cloud, in order to have access to it in case of loss of the original.