When travelling abroad, putting your travel documents and passport in a safe space is always one of the most important things to do upon arrival at your destination. For the World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico, it could be argued that it is even more important than normal.
The current situation in the USA, where ICE Agents have been empowered to locate illegal immigrants and deport them, means that all tourists should ensure they have their travel documents to hand at all times.
What happens if you lose them, though? Let's take a look.
What to do if you lose your travel documents at the World Cup
One of the most important documents to have when in the USA is an ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization. Fortunately, these are practically impossible to ‘lose' as they are digitally stored. However, what about if you lose your phone?
If this happens, then you will have no choice but to bite the bullet and purchase a new, cheap mobile phone from a local mall in the USA. Once you've got your new phone, you'll have to visit the ESTA application website and retrieve your certification. To do this, you will need your passport number and personal information, such as your date of birth and country of citizenship.
In terms of physical documents, the worst thing you could lose is your passport. If this happens, please follow these steps:
- Find the local police station and report the passport as missing. This will help the local authorities to take the necessary measures to prevent anybody from finding your passport and misusing it.
- Head to the nearest embassy of your home country and report the passport as lost.
- Still in the embassy, apply for either a brand-new passport an Emergency Travel Document (ETD) depending on when you plan to travel home.
- ETD's can usually be administrated in 1-2 days, while new passports will take 3-6 weeks to arrive.
If you visit America.
— Mr. Spock 🖖 (Commentary) (@SpockResists) May 10, 2025
Be prepared to have your phone checked.
Carry a passport and holiday visa. ALL of your holiday details.
When your holiday started and when it plans to end.
Carry these details around with you everywhere you go on your holiday.
Avoid being kidnapped.
How you could lose your passport and travel documents at the World Cup
As we mentioned at the top of the piece, common practice when you arrive in a new country as a tourist is to lock your documents away, most commonly in a safe.
However, due to how strict the USA have become on immigration, there is a chance, albeit relatively small, that you will be stopped by ICE Agents at some point during your stay. If this happens, the quickest way to resolve the issue will be to show them your ESTA and passport.
In order to guarantee this, you will need to keep your documents with you at all times, which opens up more of a chance of them going missing or being stolen.