Loss:
As your child's legal representative, you are required by law to immediately report the loss or theft of the child's passport to your local identification authority or the police. The same applies if the document reported as lost has been recovered. The police will advertise the lost document in the INPOL property search in order to counteract any possible misuse of the child passport. Of course, this also applies abroad. When doing so, have the foreign police station provide you with a written confirmation of your lost or stolen document. After your return, please present this written confirmation to your responsible identification authority.
If the loss of the children's passport has already been reported to a German police station, please bring the copy of the loss report from the police with you when applying for a new children's passport.
Please note: It is an administrative offense for a legal representative not to report the loss of a child's passport or not to report it in time . The misdemeanor may be punishable by a warning fine or fine.
Recovery: If the child's passport that was reported lost or stolen is recovered and comes into your possession, you as the parent or guardian are also legally obligated here to immediately report the recovery to the responsible identification authority in order to avoid problems with future foreign travel, among other things. The reason for this is that all ID and passport documents reported as lost or stolen are listed in the police's INPOL property tracing system both nationally and internationally. Only when you have officially reported the child's passport as "found" will a corresponding entry be deleted from the police. Therefore, you should immediately go in person to the relevant identification authority and present the recovered children's passport. The identification authority will then delete the passport entry in the INPOL property tracing system in cooperation with the police.
Please note: Germany cannot influence whether and how other countries set up their national police information systems or whether and how frequently these are updated. Therefore, in individual cases, foreign authorities may not recognize the recovered child passport for use abroad or may even confiscate it. If you want to avoid such potential inconveniences during your vacation abroad, it is advisable to apply for a new document at your local citizens' registration office if your child's passport is lost or stolen and to refrain from using the child's passport after it has been recovered.