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Where’s the safest place to put your passport when you’re traveling?

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Where’s the safest place to put your passport when you’re traveling?

Christopher Elliott
 |  Special to USA TODAY

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  • Losing your passport while traveling internationally can lead to significant complications and delays.
  • Experts recommend keeping your passport secure in a money belt, hidden luggage pocket, or hotel safe when not needed.
  • Always make copies of your passport and store them separately in case of loss or theft.

The best place to put your passport is definitely not the seatback pocket on an overnight flight from Orlando to Paris, which is exactly where my young son left his.

He’d been so insistent on carrying his passport, and I thought, “Why not? It’ll teach him to be responsible.”

But my timing was off. My son, then 11, left his passport on the Air France flight. And, of course, once my family had disembarked, they would not let us back on the plane.

How would we get through customs?

More than 300,000 American passports are lost or stolen every year, according to the U.S. State Department.

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“The safety of your passport is paramount,” said Raymond Yorke, a spokesman for Redpoint Resolutions, a travel insurance company. 

That’s because you can’t cross a border without a passport. The best place for an important document like a passport would be in a vault in your home, but that would defeat the purpose of a passport. It has to go with you, and it has to stay safe. But how?

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What to do with your passport when you travel

Here are a few tricks for keeping your passport safe.

  • Never put your passport in your back pocket: “That’s one of the worst places for it,” said Jeremy Murchland, president of Seven Corners Travel Insurance. He says many Americans feel they have to carry their passport with them at all times, but it puts them at greater risk of being pickpocketed. Murchland recommends that you leave your passport in your hotel safe.
  • When you carry your passport on your person, hide it: There are also times when you have to carry it. So then what? “My luggage has a hidden zipper pocket built into the lining,” said Adam St. John, CEO of Sitata. “I store valuables like my passport and spare cash in there.” Other popular places to store a passport include a money belt and the inner pockets of a backpack.
  • There’s a third way: You may need to show your passport if you’re shopping and want to get a VAT refund. But you can still leave your passport in the hotel safe, said Julie Ann Hargett, a luxury travel advisor. “Just take a picture of your passport,” she said. Often, showing a picture of the document is enough. And if it isn’t, Hargett said you bring the passport and keep it in a safe place like a money belt, but make a copy of the passport and leave it in the safe. Having a picture makes it easier to get a replacement if your passport is lost or stolen.

What if your passport is lost or stolen while you’re abroad?

If you have an American passport, you’ll have to appear in person at the nearest embassy or consulate to apply for a replacement passport. Most of the passports issued by the State Department are valid for 10 years for adults and five for minors. But if it’s an emergency passport, it may only be valid for one year. I also have some advanced strategies for handling your passport in my complete guide to passports on my advocacy website, Elliott.org.

Passport safety strategies you need to know

Sometimes, when you check into a hotel while you’re abroad, the property will ask to make a copy of it. Be discreet. Don’t leave it unattended anywhere, like on a table when you’re in a café. “It’ll get stolen from right under your nose in less than a blink of your eye,” said Sangeeta Sadarangani, CEO of Crossing Travel. Instead, be discreet and always have eyes on your passport when it’s out in the open. 

If you store your passport in the hotel safe, don’t forget it when you leave. How do you do that? Betsy Ball, a partner at Euro Travel Coach, always puts one of her shoes in the safe. “That way, when you are packing up, you’ll notice that one shoe is missing,” she said. “That will prompt you to get your shoe, and your passport and valuables, out of the safe and pack them up with your other belongings before moving on in your travels.”

If your passport is lost or stolen, if you have the right insurance policy, it will reimburse the cost of replacing it. David Weisselberger, an attorney from Miami, said he’ll never forget the terrifying experience of having his passport stolen while traveling abroad. 

“I assumed my travel insurance policy would cover the charges,” he said. “But I was surprised to learn that it only refunded a portion of the expenses. The policy’s fine print said that it only covered theft from a hotel safe, not from a personal bag.”

He said he’ll always review his travel insurance policy to ensure it covers a lost or stolen passport in all circumstances.

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Did we ever get into France?

So, what happened to my son’s passport? Well, after collecting our wits, we asked a gate agent for help. She arranged to search the plane, which was being cleaned. And sure enough, the passport was exactly where my son had left it. We made it through customs without any trouble.

But that was a close one. Also, an important lesson. My son has since traveled all over the world, and now he always knows where his passport is. He hasn’t even misplaced it – not once. 

A missing passport may be just a blip on the radar of life’s misadventures. But as we stood in the terminal at Charles de Gaulle Airport looking at a possible forced repatriation, I couldn’t help but smile at the irony. We’d crossed the ocean only to get stuck between our gate and French customs. Fortunately, we made it to France, my son emerged a wiser traveler, and I learned that sometimes, the best parenting moments come gift-wrapped in near-disaster packaging.

Christopher Elliott is an author, consumer advocate, and journalist. He founded Elliott Advocacy, a nonprofit organization that helps solve consumer problems. He publishes Elliott Confidential, a travel newsletter, and the Elliott Report, a news site about customer service. If you need help with a consumer problem, you can reach him here or email him at chris@elliott.org.

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