This Girl Lost Her Passport In Europe And Still Completed Her Trip With A Temporary One

by Kanika Sharma
This Girl Lost Her Passport In Europe And Still Completed Her Trip With A Temporary One

What’s the worst thing you can imagine while being on a vacation abroad? For Shally Gupta, her nightmare took form when she realised that she had lost her passport, while touring through Czech Republic! Scary right?

Neha Wadhawan and Shally Gupta decided to travel around Europe together. With all the documents in place and multiple-entry visas, they were all set to explore the Netherlands, Czech, Hungary and Switzerland. Everything was going fine, until, while in Prague, Shally realised that she had lost her passport. Feeling panicked, they immediately went to report the matter to the police.

While most of you might think, that she would have have gotten a temporary passport only to make her ay back to the country, that didn’t happen. She managed to complete here trip and then headed back to India. Here’s how!

Also read: Prisons Are Shutting Down In Netherlands Because It’s So Safe

Steps To Get A Temporary Passport

The first step thing that Shally and Neha did after the loss of passport was filing a complaint with the Prague police. Once the report was done, they were handed a copy of the report which had to be taken to the Indian Embassy.

Picture Credit: Unsplash

Also read: I Travelled To 4 Countries In Europe For 24 Days In ₹1.3 Lakhs

The Indian Embassy issues a one-page document, which serves as a temporary passport for your travels. This document is basically meant for emergency situations, which helps you travel back to  your country. However, Shally was determined to complete the rest of her trip and somehow managed to convince the embassy guys to allow her to travel for the next 8-9 days with her temporary passport.

The passport allows you access to 11-12 Schengen areas, which made it convenient for Neha and Shally to continue with their trip. However, there was a catch, which they only realised during the last leg of their trip.

There’s More

Their flight back to India was from Switzerland and it wasn’t included among the countries included in the temporary visa. Once they were entering the Swiss border, they realised that as per her documents, she was not authorised to visit Switzerland. But by showing previous bookings, and flight tickets, the Swiss authorities made an exception and let them take the return flight.

Also read: 5 Tips To Visit Switzerland On A Budget

Two girls, travelling around Europe. One lost her passport and they still didn’t feel the need to cut down on their trip. Instead, the authorities were helpful enough to give them the required documents and help them complete their trip.

So the next time, if you end up in a situation like this (though we hope not), all you have to do is keep your calm, follow these steps and head back home safely. And if you are as lucky as Neha and Shally, you might just be able to complete your trip as well.