Passport reported stolen by somebody else

[andy90]

I am just writing this here to see if anybody has heard of this happening before.
My partner and I are currently traveling around the USA and Canada. My partner is a dutch national on an Australian partner visa. When we entered Canada everything was fine but later on in the trip when we went to go into Alaska we got pulled aside at U.S customs and held in a room for about 30min because somebody in Australia had reported my partners passport stolen.
After sitting at the computer for a while the U.S customs officer gave us the passport back and just said " everything should be ok" and let us go through the border. In the moment we were just happy to be let through and didnt ask too many questions.
But we are worried about what will happen when we try and get back into Australia.
Neither Ditch or Australian consulates have been very usefull as nobody has heard of this happening before and they are all very surprised that we were let into America in the first place.

Im just asking the question on the off chance that somebody else has seen this before or knows what will happen when we try and get back into Australia.

She also has a British passport but is hesitant to use it incase something happens and it looks like we are trying to be sneaky.

 

[Cynicor]

Was the passport issued Sept to Nov last year?

 

[andy90]

No. It is about 4 years old.

 

[cove]

Identity theft is quite troublesome to fix so watch for telltale signs like credit card and banking enquiries on your credit file.
A business associate has had quite an issue and found out a few months too late.

 

[Cynicor]

No. It is about 4 years old.

No idea then. I wondered if it was just the CBP agent's interpretation of the issues around a batch of passports from that time, which require alerting immigration officials before they are used internationally.

Seems very odd, one wonders if the wrong PP number or a similarly named person has reported an issue. Either way, it won't be an issue returning to Australia as you are entitled to enter the country as a citizen. May be some hassles at the border but you'll be fine. There is no outbound immigration from the USA so no worries there either.

 

[OzEire]

Why would someone report a Dutch passport as stolen, making the report in Australia? Seems odd, if they did report it to Dutch authorities in Australia (Netherlands embassy or consulate) then US CBP would only see an official Dutch report, not the Australian angle ?

All very odd, either a genuine mistake (wrong number or similar name) or something fishy ... has the booklet ever been lost (and found again) or out of your partner's possession for any extended period (with a hotel, bank, used as ID or holding deposit for a hire car, skis, etc).

On the positive side, an ID thief would not benefit from holding details of a passport if it has been reported stolen (they would try to keep using it as long as possible before it gets reported and cancelled).

Dutch authorities issued the passport and they ultimately know if its valid or not. Australian immigration only involvement is re-entry to Australia on the visa - which should be mostly unaffected by the passport status but could be an administrative headache to sort out, eg. getting it moved into a new passport or explanations that the current passport ought to still be valid.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

No idea then. I wondered if it was just the CBP agent's interpretation of the issues around a batch of passports from that time, which require alerting immigration officials before they are used internationally.

Seems very odd, one wonders if the wrong PP number or a similarly named person has reported an issue. Either way, it won't be an issue returning to Australia as you are entitled to enter the country as a citizen. May be some hassles at the border but you'll be fine. There is no outbound immigration from the USA so no worries there either.

I believe the OP's partner just has an AU partner visa and is not a citizen. If they were they'd have an AU passport which would mean the AU visa in the NLD passport would no longer be necessary.

Was the dud batch of passports you referred to Australian ones? If so, that wouldn't apply in this case as the partner is on a Dutch passport.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

My partner and I are currently traveling around the USA and Canada. My partner is a dutch national on an Australian partner visa. When we entered Canada everything was fine but later on in the trip when we went to go into Alaska we got pulled aside at U.S customs and held in a room for about 30min because somebody in Australia had reported my partners passport stolen.

After sitting at the computer for a while the U.S customs officer gave us the passport back and just said " everything should be ok" and let us go through the border. In the moment we were just happy to be let through and didnt ask too many questions.

But we are worried about what will happen when we try and get back into Australia. Neither Ditch or Australian consulates have been very usefull as nobody has heard of this happening before and they are all very surprised that we were let into America in the first place.

Im just asking the question on the off chance that somebody else has seen this before or knows what will happen when we try and get back into Australia. She also has a British passport but is hesitant to use it incase something happens and it looks like we are trying to be sneaky.

I would be calling Australian Border Force giving them the Dutch passport number as they will be able to retrieve the details in their system because it contains the AU visa. I would be very surprised if they couldn't tell you whether or not the the Dutch passport had been cancelled. If the passport is showing valid to them and it contains your AU visa then there will be no issues when you checkin in the USA for your flight back to Australia.

Ultimately it's the ABF that are responsible for allowing an airline to uplift a pax to AU so I would definitely call them to check that everything is in order. If not ask them if they can transfer to AU visa to the GBR passport as a workaround. I know they can move the visa eg from one NLD passport to another NLD passport or whatever the nationality maybe however I'm not sure whether from a NLD to GBR passport would be treated the same.

Don't leave it until you get to the airport otherwise the airline flying you back to AU will not be able to check you in and it could take a while to sort out.

 

[Cynicor]

Yeah, didn't read it properly and realise it was a Dutch passport and not an Aussie one. My mistake.

 

[andy90]

I would be calling Australian Border Force giving them the Dutch passport number as they will be able to retrieve the details in their system because it contains the AU visa. I would be very surprised if they couldn't tell you whether or not the the Dutch passport had been cancelled. If the passport is showing valid to them and it contains your AU visa then there will be no issues when you checkin in the USA for your flight back to Australia.

Ultimately it's the ABF that are responsible for allowing an airline to uplift a pax to AU so I would definitely call them to check that everything is in order. If not ask them if they can transfer to AU visa to the GBR passport as a workaround. I know they can move the visa eg from one NLD passport to another NLD passport or whatever the nationality maybe however I'm not sure whether from a NLD to GBR passport would be treated the same.

Don't leave it until you get to the airport otherwise the airline flying you back to AU will not be able to check you in and it could take a while to sort out.

Unfortunately the ABF are not interested in hearing about it. When we called they pretty much hung up mid sentence as soon as they found out we were calling about a Dutch passport. At least if the airline will not check us in when leaving the U.S it saves being turned back in Aus after a 13hr flight.

 

[vetrade]

The US customs person wouldn't have sent you on your way if there was a problem. They obviously checked and found no issue; maybe they had other similar issues that day and realised it was a computer glitch or similar. The whole idea of someone in Australia reporting a Dutch passport as having been stolen when it clearly hadn't can't be credibly attributed to anything other than a mistake.
It will turn out to be a non issue on your return so don't stress and let it affect your trip.

 

[OzEire]

Unfortunately the ABF are not interested in hearing about it. When we called they pretty much hung up mid sentence as soon as they found out we were calling about a Dutch passport. At least if the airline will not check us in when leaving the U.S it saves being turned back in Aus after a 13hr flight.

It is a Dutch passport, issued by the Netherlands government, and therefore only they could answer any query about its validity.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

It is a Dutch passport, issued by the Netherlands government, and therefore only they could answer any query about its validity.

I thought it may be possible they'd know if a foreign passport was valid ie not cancelled if it contained an electronic AU visa in it. Sounds like it isn't so.

 

[OzEire]

I thought it may be possible they'd know if a foreign passport was valid ie not cancelled if it contained an electronic AU visa in it. Sounds like it isn't so.

It is possible, say if Dutch authorities have cancelled and sent a worldwide alert on the document. Doubtful this info would be shared with a random caller.

But in the more likely (in this case) scenario that the passport is indeed valid, Australian authorities would probably have no info beyond some record that they may have checked the passport when the visa was originally issued, potentially years earlier - only the Dutch would have "live" records.