My Passport or BRP is Lost, stolen or expired

Please keep your BRP card safe. You do not usually need to carry it with you in the UK. You can buy a proof of age card as evidence of your age to buy alcohol and enter pubs and clubs so that you don’t need to carry your BRP card. A totem card from the NUS is an acceptable proof of age card, and also provides many discounts.

The information on this page explains what you will need to do in the following circumstances:

• my passport and/or BRP is lost or stolen in the UK
• my passport and/or BRP is lost or stolen outside the UK
• my passport has expired in the UK
• my passport has expired outside the UK

When you receive a new identity or immigration document, you should send a copy to the Student Enquiry Centre so that your record can be updated.

If your passport has been lost or stolen, report it to the police immediately. You should do this at your local police station or online. For details go to the Metropolitan Police website.

You will need to complete a form explaining what happened. The police will give you a copy and if your passport was stolen they will give you a crime reference number. This is an important document. Please note that you will not get a crime reference number if you have lost your passport (it has not been stolen) or if your passport has been damaged.

Immediately notify the Home Office if it is your BRP which has been lost, stolen or damaged. You will do this on the online form on the UK government website.

Contact your embassy in London to obtain a replacement passport. If your passport has been stolen, you may need your police report to do this but make sure you keep a copy.

This depends on whether your immigration permission was on a vignette (sticker) in your passport or on a Biometric Residence Permit.

Follow the guidance on the UK Government website.

This explains that you must apply for another BRP within 3 months of reporting the loss or theft of your original BRP, using online form BRP(RC).

You should report your lost BRP card online and then complete the BRP(RC) form online in order to apply for a replacement BRP. Only report your lost BRP if you are sure it is lost, once you report it, it will be cancelled and will no longer be valid, even if you later find it.

You will need to enrol your biometrics again during this process of the replacement BRP application. It will take approximately 8 weeks to receive your new BRP card.

You do not need to include your passport with your supporting documents if you are applying to replace a lost/stolen BRP and no other details have changed, and your last BRP card was issued no more than 2 years ago.

• Complete your personal details exactly as they are in your passport.
• You should include a copy of the police report if you were issued with one and an official translation if this is not in English. If the police did not issue you with a police report, you should include the police reference number in the application.
• If you were not issued with a police report or reference number, you should write a cover letter to explain this. We understand that this will not be a problem for your BRP(RC) application.
• For the question 'Your visa or leave':
• Select 'Entry clearance' if your full immigration permission is on a vignette (sticker) in your passport
• Select 'Leave to enter' if your full immigration permission is on a BRP card which you applied for from overseas
• Select 'Leave to remain' if your full immigration permission is on a BRP card which you applied for in the UK.
• You will need to confirm your identity by sending documents with your name and address. You can download a Student Status Letter from your Gradintelligence account, see the Student Enquiry Centre website for further details.
• You only need to include the signed third party consent document if your proof of address (or any of your other evidence) is in the name of you and another person. In this case, they will need to agree to, and sign, the consent form.
• You will need to sign the consent form from you, and upload it with your supporting documents.
• Keep a copy of all the documents, your document checklist and your application form.

After you have submitted your application, you will upload your documents on the UKVCAS website and make an appointment to enrol your biometrics. There will be an additional charge for some appointments. 

When you get a new passport from your embassy, you will have to apply to the Home Office to transfer your old immigration permission from your old passport. You will not get a new sticker in your passport, this will be replaced with a Biometric Residence Permit. This means you will need to attend an appointment at the Home Office or a Post Office even if you apply by post to submit biometric information (have your fingerprints scanned and your photo taken).

You need to submit the following documents:

• complete application form TOC
• police report and crime reference number (if your passport has been stolen)
• photocopy of your old student visa if you have one, or you can write a letter stating the start and end date of the student permission that was in your old passport
• alternative form of ID - for example a driving licence and letters addressed to you (eg from the bank, or Queen Mary University of London see the TOC form for examples).

If your leave is valid for less than 8 weeks, and you would have been making an extension application in the UK anyway, you can apply to extend your stay in the UK with your new blank passport (without completing either of the forms explained above) completing the appropriate form to extend your leave. We advise you to contact a welfare adviser who can help you with the application.

We understand that if you are due to leave the UK within 8 weeks of losing your visa vignette, you are not required to submit a TOC form. In this case, your old passport (if you still have it), a copy of your visa vignette and/or any letter from the Home Office with your permission to be here are evidence of your status.

• If you lose your decision letter after arrival in the UK, before collecting your BRP, if you know where you need to collect your BRP from, just take your passport with the vignette in to collect your BRP, and explain that you have lost the decision letter.
• If you do not know where you are required to collect your BRP from, or if you lose your passport, after arrival in the UK, prior to BRP collection you should use the form on the Gov.UK website to report your situation to the Home Office. The will write to you in 5 working days with instructions telling you what you need to do next. 
  

Immediately report the loss or theft to the police in the country where it happened

Contact your country's embassy or high commission in the country where you are now, to arrange for a replacement passport.

If your immigration permission was issued on an entry clearance or residence permit sticker (vignette) for the duration of your stay in the UK, you will need to apply for a "Vignette Transfer". See UKCISA's guidance for more information.

If you have lost your Biometric Residence Permit, report the loss or theft to the police and obtain a police report, then notify the Home Office that your BRP has been lost or stolen. The form to do this can be found on the UK Government website.

Apply for a Replacement BRP visa, which you can use once to return to the UK. The visa does not replace your lost or stolen biometric residence permit. You will need to make your immigration application on the UK government website. Select 'apply for a 'replacement BRP visa' under the section 'If you're outside the UK'

When you arrive back in the UK, you will need to apply for a new biometric residence permit within 1 month of your arrival. See the UK Government website

Contact your embassy in London to obtain a new one.

If your immigration permission was on an entry clearance or residence permit sticker (vignette) in your passport, you are not required to apply to transfer your immigration permission to your new passport. You can travel to and from the UK using your new and old passports but you must carry both of these. Alternatively you can apply to replace the sticker that you had in your old passport, by applying for a biometric residence permit(BRP). You can transfer your immigration permission to a BRP by applying for a ‘transfer of conditions’ on a TOC form

If you would like to work or you are currently working in the UK, you would be subject to employer checks (your employer checking that you have the right to work in the UK). An employer will check your immigration permission and this must be in a current passport. If you are working or would like to work in the UK, you will have to apply to the Home Office to transfer your old immigration permission from your old passport. You will not get a new sticker in your passport, this will be replaced with a Biometric Residence Permit. To apply to transfer your immigration permission you will need to complete application form TOC

If your immigration permission was issued as a plastic card called a Biometric Residence Permit and you are issued a new passport, you should contact the Home Office to notify them of the change. Instructions for how to do this can be found on the UKCISA website.

If you receive a new passport when you are overseas, and your immigration permission is on a BRP card, then you will need to complete the MCC form when you return to the UK. You should also inform the Immigration Compliance Team at Queen Mary about your new passport details so that your record can be updated. You can email them: [email protected] 

Standard BRP replacement applications have a service standard of up to 8 weeks for a decision to be made, although sometimes it can be quicker than this. You should factor in an additional week for the BRP to be issued and sent to you. Therefore you should allow up to two months before you can expect to have a replacement BRP issued.

If you have urgent travel plans, you should consider applying for a replacement BRP using the Super Priority service or applying for a single entry BRP replacement visa outside the UK.

You do not need a BRP to leave the UK, but you will need a BRP or a single entry BRP replacement visa to return. See section My passport/ BRP is lost/ stolen outside the UK for information on applying for a single entry BRP replacement visa.

If you submit a BRP(RC) standard application and then discover that you need to travel urgently, you must either:

• withdraw the application and make a new Super Priority application, or
• leave the UK and apply for a single entry BRP replacement visa at a Visa Application Centre while you are overseas. Your pending BRP (RC) application will be cancelled and you will need to submit a new BRP(RC) application once you have returned to the UK.

UKVI will not normally provide any updates or expedite applications which are still within the service standard.