GC holder, LOST indi passpoer, now applying for US citiz

G

gc2citizen2010

New Member
Hi
I have a GC and have been living in US for past 10 years. I visited India in Dec 2008 and lost my Indian passport on the way back in Paris airport. The airport security (rude bastards) was notified, but they never game me any police report in Paris. The security in Paris and US let me in because I had my GC.

I still have not filed my police report (stupid mistake) and am now applying for US citizenship. I have my interview coming up and in the form, it asks me to bring my passport. Not sure what I should do for this.

Should I file a police complain now in US - even though its approx 1.5 years since the loss and the loss occurred in Paris? I'm thinking I can just go to the police station here and tell them that I made a mistake of not reporting earlier....but at the same time I want to make sure I don't shoot my self in the foot by being naive/honest. My citiz interview is in another 20 days!

Any advice would be appreciated!
 
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When I lost my passport it took me months to realize that it was lost. It was only when I was looking to book tickets for my next travel that I discovered it was missing. I called the cops and told them that I did not know when it was lost and they told me to go ahead and file a police report at the local police station. Once I had the report I applied for a new passport using that police report.

This was a while back, but I believe that the NYC Indian consulate gives you another passport within a few days. I remember picking the passport up in person, just don’t remember if I applied the same day as well. :)

If you’d rather not get a new passport (understandable), call USCIS and see if they have a solution. If not, just make an infopass appt and see if they even need your previous passport. At the least I’m sure they would want to see a police report of the loss in Paris.

Good Luck!
 
gc2citizen2010 said:
Hi
I have a GC and have been living in US for past 10 years. I visited India in Dec 2008 and lost my Indian passport on the way back in Paris airport. The airport security (rude bastards) was notified, but they never game me any police report in Paris. The security in Paris and US let me in because I had my GC.

I still have not filed my police report (stupid mistake) and am now applying for US citizenship. I have my interview coming up and in the form, it asks me to bring my passport. Not sure what I should do for this.

Should I file a police complain now in US - even though its approx 1.5 years since the loss and the loss occurred in Paris? I'm thinking I can just go to the police station here and tell them that I made a mistake of not reporting earlier....but at the same time I want to make sure I don't shoot my self in the foot by being naive/honest. My citiz interview is in another 20 days!

Any advice would be appreciated!
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File a police report for a missing/lost passport asap. Where and how you lost it is secondary to obtaining the report for your interview.
 
You don't really need your passport for your interview. They might want to see it if you've traveled a lot, but you don't need a passport as an LPR.
 
update

Thanks for the advice guys. I appreciate it!

I filed a complaint at my local US police station. Since the loss occurred a while back and in a different country, the police here just created a report stating that I formally complained that my Indian passport # Abc, issued at xyz Indian embassy, was lost in Paris on Dec xx 2008 and that I filed a complaint on this date. I think they also entered the loss information in some international tracking system.

I took the report to my citiz interview and told the interviewer that I lost the passport in Paris and that I have a police report. She said they really did not need it since I had not stayed outside the US for more than 6 months. So interview went without a hitch.

I also visited the Indian embassy and told them about the loss (i had also filled out a lost passport form). I was asked to talk to an Officer. I asked the Officer whether I need to file a lost passport complaint and get a new Indian passport given that I will be a US citizen shortly anyway. I also asked him if not filing a complaint will cause issues when I need to get Indian PIO/visa etc to visit India as a US citizen. He said I did not need to. He suggested that when I do get my US citizenship, I should come by and surrender my expired passport. That was apparently sufficient.

I have my oath ceremony in a couple of days (1 week after interview). I plan on reading up on what I need to do to get dual citizenship not sure what exactly it is called - PIO, OCI, dual citiz etc) so I can travel to India without issues.

I will post an update once I am done with all this. thanks again for all your advice!
 
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