My Passport Was Stolen

Part 2: The Stolen Passport Saga

I recently went to renew my passport. My passport had not yet expired, but to enter Morocco it had to be valid for at least six months, which it was not. Weeks before traveling, I filled out my application and provided contact phone numbers and current addresses. I went to pick up my passport the day before my international travel, although the passport was ready for pick-up the week before.

Imagine my surprise when I went to the Passport Office and was told that my passport was not ready because it had been flagged for security reasons. In the wave of shock that ensued, I was handed a long distance fax number and told that my passport could not be processed until I sorted it out. This was the day before travel. On my application I had both clearly indicated my planned date of travel, and provided a list of phone and address contacts. I had not been contacted and unassumingly arrived at the Passport Office believing that there were no problems. After all, I had expediently received a replacement passport and traveled on that passport for years.

Perhaps it was the devastated look on my face, or the tears that were forming in the corners of my eyes, but the supervisor quickly came over and explained that someone had tried to use my stolen passport only weeks after I had reported it stolen. I can understand that perhaps this information could not be shared with me at the time, but I felt like not only my passport, but my identity to the world, was stolen and I was left in the dark about it. It was now that I felt the full impact of what it was like to have someone try to rob you of your name, of your nationality. I worried about identity theft, and have now followed up those concerns by contacting government agencies and the credit bureau to make sure that there haven't been any other unknown problems.

I stood my ground, and hours later the Passport Office received the security clearance to issue my passport. It was unfortunate that a brief moment of lack of attention five years ago led to so many concerns years later. I suppose I am relating my own tale of a stolen passport to emphasize how easily it can occur, that it can happen at home more readily at home than abroad. And more disturbingly, that even when you follow the correct procedures for reporting a passport stolen, you may still have issues to deal with years later. A stolen passport was far more serious than I could have imagined.