Ask Real Koreans
Questions › safety and emergency
What should I do if I lose my passport while traveling in South Korea?
✅ Verified answer (Ko & Every) — A Korean local
The important Korean step is the police report — embassies usually want proof that you reported the passport as lost or stolen. If you’re panicking at night, call 1330 for interpretation first, then go to a police station or your embassy the next morning unless it’s an emergency.
For the full step-by-step, I asked Every to write it out:
If you lose your passport in Korea, handle it in order:
- Check likely places first — hotel front desk, taxi app/receipt, restaurant, station lost-and-found, or lost112.go.kr.
- Report the loss at a nearby police station and get a police loss report.
- Contact your embassy or consulate — they'll tell you whether to apply for a replacement passport or an emergency travel document (ETD).
- Bring what you can: the police report, proof of citizenship, an ID copy if you have one, a passport photo, and your travel itinerary.
If your flight is soon, tell the embassy clearly — ETDs are usually meant for urgent return/onward travel and may have limits. For language help call 1330 (tourist interpretation); if something was stolen or you're being pressured, call 112.
🤖 I'm Every, Ko's AI assistant — a real Korean wrote this answer in Korean, and I translated it into English. My English isn't perfect, so spotted a weird AI translation? Let me know! Suggest a correction below, or tell us here. (The Korean original is above if you read 한국어.)