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Help! Lost passports and travelling on Saturday!

271 replies

winterrabbit · 22/05/2022 19:19

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.

OP posts:
Bobbybobbins · 22/05/2022 22:22

I found mine after a mad few days searching in an envelope as I'd sent it off as proof of ID. The fact it wasn't in its usual place sent me into a tailspin. Try to walk through when you got them back from your ex.

ZekeZeke · 22/05/2022 22:22

Laptop bag?

stepuporshutup · 22/05/2022 22:22

When you got back from your last trip who was in charge of the passports. Have you got a big handbag you take on the plane. Or a backpack that you would put them in. Be logical where do you normally put them when you get home. Hope you find them op

dementedmummy · 22/05/2022 22:24

Check the bags yourkids and their dad used the last time. Ask their dad to check his travel wallet. Just in case.

Houseplantmad · 22/05/2022 22:24

Search near the front door if they were given to you in April when they returned. Have they fallen into an umbrella stand or behind a cupboard there?

reallyworriedjobhunter · 22/05/2022 22:25

reallyworriedjobhunter · 22/05/2022 22:18

Isn't there a mnetter who is good at finding things? She can tell you where things are.

Her name is Phepho

HellyR · 22/05/2022 22:28

Stopsnowing · 22/05/2022 22:13

I put mine on top of books in a bookcase when I was coming back from a trip. It was just while I was getting through the door but I forgot to put it away properly. When your ex handed you the passports had you been in the middle of something?

I was going to suggest this!

roofio · 22/05/2022 22:31

Her own passport is missing too, not just the DC's

Stravaig · 22/05/2022 22:32

Getting more rustic here, but bicycle panniers, motorbike boxes, garden trug, wheelbarrow, shed, firewood store, greenhouse, polytunnel, animal hutches, garden room, folly? Anywhere you might have walked them out to while distracted? (I have form for tucking things into wellies then decanting them, out there somewhere.)

Onlinetherapist · 22/05/2022 22:34

With your birth certificates/other important docs? Or perhaps in an envelope with papers to be filed away? There’s still time..

Bootothegoose · 22/05/2022 22:34

No one has stolen your passports. They are in the house.

Go through logically everywhere they could possibly be. What did you do during lockdown? Did you organise/tidy? Have you moved? Bought new furniture? Rearranged rooms? Put things into the attic?

Anything that has been changed since you last used them gets searched. Including luggage, all bags, all bookcases, drawers etc. Where is the important documentation kept?

ToiletGambles · 22/05/2022 22:35

They have to all be together wherever they are, surely? People suggesting when dad gave them back they had been put somewhere near the door etc but that wouldn't explain mums being missing as well? I hope you manage to find them and have a wonderful trip, OP.

Tigertigertigertiger · 22/05/2022 22:36

there is no way you have thrown them out.
and it is extremely unlikely they have been stolen.

is there a place they are normally kept ? There’s a saying that lost things are often within 18 inches of where they should be. I lost my car keys and turned the house upside down. I read the 18 inches thing and found them inside a cocoa tin about a foot from where they should have been.

have you tried all the suggestions on this thread ? There are some great ones !

roofio · 22/05/2022 22:39

winterrabbit · 22/05/2022 20:27

I've searched carefully everywhere at least 3 times. They are not there. The only explanation is that there was stolen or I thew them away. I had a clear out of my office over Easter and chucked out some papers. I can only conclude that they were in the papers. I alway keek the passports in my home office and they are just not here. DH is good at finding things and he also can't find them.

I assume the DC were away with dad at Easter? Did you clear out before or after that?

Yugi · 22/05/2022 22:40

I haven’t read all the posts so these have probably all been mentioned but
1 Take the drawers out of the frame and check they haven’t been shoved back and fallen behind the drawers
2 Check the pockets of all your coats
3 Think about what you might have needed them for, opening bank accounts, applying for something and then look in places related to that.
Good luck

FAQs · 22/05/2022 22:40

@winterrabbit car?

FAQs · 22/05/2022 22:42

Izzieloo · 22/05/2022 21:36

Mine was in the printer.

This is where I found our ‘lost’ passports once.

Yugi · 22/05/2022 22:47

Dont forget to check the childrens coats, bags and suitcases. I work at a port and one time a family searched for ages and eventually found them in the toddlers backpack where they had shoved them for a moment and then got distracted

AntiHop · 22/05/2022 22:48

When Iost my passport I found it in a bag under my desk. I'd taken it to work to photocopy then forgotten to bring it home.

skeemee · 22/05/2022 22:48

My dog groomer found hers in the front pocket of her handbag. One of those vertical zipped pockets that you never use.
My sons was in the rear pocket of the car seats. He needed ID and shoved it in there.
@winterrabbit you will find them.

Hurstlandshome · 22/05/2022 22:55

Where were you when they were handed to you by ex? Where you at your front door? Could you have slipped them on top of a tall cupboard thinking you'd sort them out later? Where's your washing machine? Do you have a utility room - could you have taken the kids bags in there to sort and slipped them on a shelf?
Look EVERYWHERE even if it seems hopeless.
They are in your house somewhere, keep looking, we are all rooting for you!

Velvian · 22/05/2022 22:59

Say a prayer to St Anthony (worth a go).
Check bags, car, above eyeline all around the house.

RishiRich · 22/05/2022 23:00

Do you have a parent/sibling/good friend who could come over for the day and re-search with you?

Jenasaurus · 22/05/2022 23:08

I feel for you Op, I had a situation where I lost my passport but realised what happened, I put it in the draw of my newly built dressing table (flat pack and built by me) the draw was a little dodgy and directly over the bin, and when I realised the draw was empty and the back fallen off, I knew what had happened. Contacted the passport office as my DS is getting married this year. I am afraid it took a while as it is the second passport I have lost ( my ex got rid of my passport, birth cert etc when we split up) so I had to have an interview with the passport office. They sent me a new one but it expires next March as they would only issue me one for 12 months due to me losing 2.

I nearly lost this one as well, I took it on the hen weekend as was told it may be needed for ID, told my DD who was also on the weekend as she is a bridesmaid, to keep an eye on my passport for me as I have a bad memory, imagine my horror when I knocked the bin over in the hotel room and out rolled my passport, how I had done that i have no idea.

So the point I am getting to here is, firstly check the bins and also any other random place you dont think you would put them, if you are like me you may have absent mindedly put them somewhere without thinking. Its very unlikely they have been stolen. Do you have a photo copy of the passport photo page? Just wonder if that would speed up a replacement for you.

Best of luck and hope you find them

nocoolnamesleft · 22/05/2022 23:09

All coat pockets. All handbags. Printer/scanner. Next to the computer. Down the back of the radiators (not kidding, once found mine down the back of a radiator). Did you have to enter the passport numbers into the airline booking at any point? Could that be when you last saw them?