Lost Passport in China: The Four Steps to Get Home

Losing your passport in China is fixable. The fix has four steps: report the loss to the police and get a paper saying so; get a new passport or emergency travel document from your embassy; go to the local Exit-Entry Administration to have your visa — or, if you entered visa-free, a stay permit (停留证件, tíngliú zhèngjiàn), the paper that stands in for a visa — put into the new document; and update your accommodation registration to the new passport number, a five-minute job at the hotel desk that you do before the Exit-Entry visit, because the office asks for it. The step people skip is the visa one, and it's the one that stops you at the airport: a brand-new passport with nothing Chinese in it won't get you through exit immigration. Here's each step — where to go, what to bring, how long it takes and what it costs.

The whole process at a glance

Realistically, plan for one to three weeks from loss to departure if you need a full passport, and a few days if an emergency travel document will do and your embassy is quick. The Chinese side of the timeline is the predictable part; the embassy side varies by country, so that's the first phone call to make once the police report is done.

Step 1: the police report and the Loss Certificate

Before you report, spend fifteen minutes retracing your steps: the taxi (your ride-hailing app has the driver's contact), the restaurant, the train's lost-and-found, the hotel safe. A surprising number of "stolen" passports are sitting on a counter somewhere. If that fails, go to the nearest police station, 派出所 (pàichūsuǒ) — search the word in your map app or ask your hotel, which deals with the local station for guest registration and knows the way. If it was a theft that's happening right now, call 110; for a passport that's simply lost, go to the station in person. Bring anything that proves who you are: a photocopy or phone photo of the passport, a driver's licence, a national ID card.

Say "护照丢了" (hùzhào diū le, "passport lost") and ask for the receipt. Police are required to log a report and hand the reporting person a written case acceptance receipt, the 受案回执 (shòu'àn huízhí). In Beijing this first step is free and done on the spot at the station nearest to where you lost it. If your bag was stolen rather than lost, describe it as theft; the same receipt then becomes the document your insurer will want. For what to say to the police in general, see our guide to emergency numbers in China.

The receipt is not yet the document Chinese immigration needs — embassies vary, and many accept the police receipt, so check with yours. What immigration needs is the Passport Loss Certificate (护照报失证明, hùzhào bàoshī zhèngmíng), issued by the Exit-Entry department of the district police. Beijing's process: take the police receipt, a copy of your ID or old passport and three 3.5 × 4.9 cm colour photos on a white background to the nearest district Exit-Entry service centre, fill in a loss-report form, and the certificate is free. Shanghai handles it slightly differently: you report the loss directly to the Exit-Entry department for the district where it happened, showing proof of identity and proof of when you entered China, and the certificate is normally issued about two working days later. Get the photos taken at any photo shop on the way; ask for 二寸白底 (èr cùn bái dǐ — two-inch, white background, the 3.5 × 4.9 cm size).

Step 2: the embassy — emergency document or full passport?

With the Loss Certificate in hand, contact your embassy or the consulate that covers the province you're in; our embassy contacts in China guide has the numbers, after-hours lines and consular districts. Most countries offer two routes. An emergency travel document is usually faster and cheaper and is meant to get you home, but it's typically valid for one journey and a short time. A full replacement passport takes longer and costs more but lets you continue your trip and travel onward. Choose by what's left of your trip: flying home within days, take the emergency document; three more weeks in China or another country after this, ask how long the full passport takes before you decide. Each embassy publishes its own list of requirements, but expect to bring the police receipt or Loss Certificate, passport photos to your country's specification, any ID you still have, and proof of your onward travel.

Two things to check with the consular officer while you're there. First, ask them to write a letter or note confirming that a new document has been issued (an official letter from the embassy; Beijing's office calls it a note, 照会) — Shanghai's immigration department requires one if you went to the embassy before making the loss report, and it does no harm elsewhere. Second, if your country has no mission in China that can issue documents, tell the Exit-Entry office: China can issue a foreigner's exit-entry permit (外国人出入境证) to someone who can't get a passport from their own embassy, based on the Loss Certificate, with a decision within 30 working days.

Step 3: the visa or stay permit — don't skip this

This is the step that separates travellers who make their flight from those who don't. Your old visa, or the visa-free entry recorded against your old passport, doesn't transfer. Chinese law says that when a foreigner's visa or stay permit is lost or stolen, they must apply to the Exit-Entry Administration of the public security bureau where they're staying for a replacement. At the border, exit immigration checks your travel document and your entry-exit papers and only then lets you through — an emergency travel document with no Chinese visa or stay permit in it fails that check.

Before you go, have your hotel update your registration to the new document (step 4 below) — it's on the list of things the office asks for. What you bring in Beijing: the original Loss Certificate or the embassy's letter, the new passport or travel document, your current accommodation registration, and one 3.5 × 4.9 cm white-background photo; any of Beijing's 21 foreigner Exit-Entry service halls takes the application, processes it within 7 working days of acceptance, and charges the standard visa fee. In Shanghai, the rule is that you have 30 days from the date on your Loss Certificate to complete your stay or residence formalities. If you entered visa-free, the same office issues the stay permit; the 30-day visa-free policy only works on an ordinary passport, not on emergency or temporary documents, so you can't simply "re-enter" the policy with your new paper. Ask for a stay permit that runs to your departure date. Don't let the wait push you past your original permitted stay: overstaying draws a warning, and in serious cases a fine of 500 yuan a day (capped at 10,000) or 5–15 days' detention, under the exit-entry law. If you're close to the line, mention it at the counter and ask for the acceptance receipt when you apply — it shows you have applied — and our guide to extending your stay in China explains how stay permits work.

Where the offices are in Beijing and Shanghai

Beijing: the main Exit-Entry reception hall is at 2 Andingmen East Street, Dongcheng District, open Monday to Saturday 9:00–17:00, with 12367 as the national immigration hotline for questions. For the Loss Certificate itself, Beijing lists 16 district service points — for example the Dongcheng sub-bureau's Exit-Entry centre at 34 Xingfu Street (daily 9:00–17:30) and the Chaoyang foreigners' centre at Building 304, BEZIT Park (电子城 IT 产业园), A10 Jiuxianqiao North Road (Monday to Saturday 9:00–17:00, closed on public holidays); the full list is on the Beijing government's page of locations to obtain a Passport Loss Certificate. Shanghai: the Exit-Entry Administration Bureau is at 1500 Minsheng Road, Pudong, open Monday to Saturday 9:00–17:00 except public holidays, phone +86 21 2895 1900, and 12367 for the service line. In any other city, search "出入境管理" plus the city name in your map app, or ask 12367, which answers in English.

Step 4: re-register where you're staying

Your accommodation registration is tied to your passport number, so a new document means a new registration. If you're in a hotel, the front desk files it for you; hand them the new passport and ask them to update the record. If you're in a rented flat or a friend's home, the law gives you 24 hours from moving in to register at the local police station, and after a passport change you go back and do it again with the new number. Shanghai's process lists this explicitly: report the loss, get the certificate, get the new passport, then re-do the accommodation registration under the new passport number before applying for the stay permit. Beijing asks for a valid registration as part of the visa application, so do it before you go to the Exit-Entry hall, not after. The rules are in our guide to hotel booking and registration in China.

Leaving the country

At exit immigration you'll present the new passport or emergency travel document with the replacement visa or stay permit inside it, and the officer checks both before stamping you out. Carry the Loss Certificate and the police receipt as well; they explain the mismatch between your entry record and your new document if anyone asks. Tell your airline about the document change when you rebook — airlines verify passport details against the booking, and some carriers have their own rules on emergency travel documents, so confirm with them rather than assume. Give yourself extra time at the airport.

Moving around inside China before you leave is easier than you might fear. Railway ticket windows accept a Passport Loss Certificate, an Exit-Entry receipt for a pending visa application, and embassy-issued temporary travel documents (these only with a valid visa or stay permit inside) as valid ID for buying and using train tickets, so you can still take the train to the city where your embassy is. Domestic flights are stricter: the ID a foreign passenger needs is a passport, a diplomatic ID or a permanent residence card, so don't count on flying on the certificate alone — take the train, wait for the new passport, or ask the airline whether it accepts an emergency travel document.

Before it happens: two minutes of prevention

Keep a photo of your passport's ID page and your entry stamp or arrival record in your phone and in cloud storage; carry a paper photocopy separately from the passport; and keep at least four 3.5 × 4.9 cm white-background photos with you, since Beijing's Loss Certificate alone asks for three and the visa for one more, plus a set to your own country's specification. Carry the passport itself in an inside pocket or a neck pouch rather than a back pocket or a bag that leaves your body — you'll need the original for hotel check-ins, train tickets and many ticketed sights anyway — and keep the copies and spare photos somewhere separate, so one loss doesn't take everything. Travel insurance often reimburses replacement costs and the extra nights and flights a lost passport causes, but the wording differs a lot between policies, so read the "travel documents" clause before you buy; World Nomads is one of the providers that spells it out, and our guide to travel insurance for China covers what else to look for.

Last updated: September 2026