Help! Lost passports and travelling on Saturday!

[winterrabbit]

We are supposed to be going on holiday on Saturday but have lost our passports. I have literally spent the last 24 hours turning the house upside down and they are not here. I can only conclude that i chucked them out by mistake or someone nicked them (we have had a nanny and a couple of workmen in the house but noone I think would steal them). Tried to book a fast track appointment to replace them and it says no appointment available and from what i am reading we are not going to be able to get one for weeks at best. We can't cancel the flights and DS is going to miss the football tour we were going to. The flights was extortionate as well. I honestly feel like jumping off a cliff.

Have you checked the pockets of all your luggage and weekend bags.

You need to search logically. The danger when you've lost something like this is that you look in the bottom of your wardrobe then you think 'ohhh, in the printer' then ' the glove box' etc__ and you rush around not looking anywhere properly.

Tell yourself they are in the house. The nanny or some workmen have not stolen your passports.

Then look thoroughly in one room at a time. Search everywhere in that room whether they could be there or not and then move on to,the next room.

Yes - look in the zip up pockets of any bags you only use for holidays.

I think this is going to be a really common post-pandemic thing - we’ve literally been able to ignore them for the past two years!

Is it possible to get the flights changed so you can use the tickets another time or were you only travelling for the football tour?

I thought I’d lost mine once and it was in the (well concealed) zip pocket at the front of my travel bag. Have you checked all the luggage you used on your last trip away?

They have not been stolen. Unless you are part of some big organised crime ring, someone else's passport is useless to you.

I agree that you're panicking, not thinking straight and not looking properly. Calm down and really think.

I agree 100% with this. Be methodical, however much of a blind panic you're in.

Have you needed them to prove I'd, did you use them at the ci.puter to I put information?

Move things (boxes, furniture) out/away from the side of the wall - I've lost things that have been jammed inbetween somehow and only discovered by accident.

Agree. Logically from one end of the house to the other. From floor to ceiling. As someone navigating the passport system you have no hope of a replacement.

My friend found hers in her printer/scanner.

Allocate half an hour per room and get searching.
In between books on a bookcase..
Towel cupboard.
Top of kitchen units.
Under bed.
In cases /travel bags.
Bedside drawers.

How many are there?

The fact that they're all missing suggests that they're all together somewhere safe. When was the last time they were all used at the one time?

Ugh, how horrible!

They will be there somewhere.

The fact they are all lost is almost a good thing. It's less likely they will have been thrown out.

Any chance you could have left them at your or your DHs parents?

Where did you last go when you went abroad - was it a hot or cold country? Ski bag or beach bag?

I once lost a valuable necklace. It was in a bag hanging among cloths in a closet.

Check the scanner/photocopier.

So often people leave them inside the machine

Also pull out drawers completely. It's easy for passports to fall behind and underneath

Another one who’s ‘lost’ her passport and found it in their suitcase where I left it after my last trip.

I now have a travel wallet they live in and go immediately back to, if they are needed for whatever reason.

Good luck OP!

Suitcases - check every pocket
Every pocket of every rucksack / bag
Underneath the knife and fork separater
Bookcase
Jacket pockets

Where do you normally keep them? Anywhere near or similar.

Good luck comrade. Stay calm. You will find them.

Where do you normally keep them? If a drawer unit, take all the drawers out in case they have slipped down the back.

We replaced our old passports as we'd lost them a few years back.

I found them as I was packing to go away, in the (otherwise empty) toiletry bag in the cupboard under the bathroom sink. Sticking them in that bag must have seemed a good idea to one of us when unpacking previously!

PS - I think it’s unlikely you’ve thrown them out, especially if all of them are missing. I’d say that was more likely if it was just the one

Do you have a friend who can help you look? A different search strategy (and calm mind) might help.

Back of your knicker drawer, in a pocket of an item of clothing you only really wear on holiday, inside of flight bag, in between beach towels that you have washed and packed away since you last went abroad, glove compartment of car, pull bedside drawers out fully, they might have fallen down back

Can you find any of the things which would have been with them when you got home last time, e.g. EHIC cards, currency, luggage tags stuck to plane tickets. Did you have maybe a changing bag with you and stuffed them in there when you needed free hands to deal with a child straight after passport control? Did you drive home from the airport and (more worryingly) have you changed car since then?

A brief pleading to St Jude and St Anthony is always worth a shot 😂. Good luck!

Your passports are there, I guarantee it. You're panicking and not thinking clearly. Calm down and start again. You have plenty of time. You'll find them. Remember to look very carefully in your bags/luggage. There are so many pockets that are easy to miss.

I’d taken mine to work for ID and it was my desk at work. You need a proper method to search.