American travelers are sharing alarming stories after discovering their valid passports had been flagged as lost or stolen…only after they’d already arrived overseas.
In multiple cases across different countries, travelers said they flew out of the U.S. without issue, then learned from foreign border agents that their passports had been marked invalid through Interpol.
Because the alerts surfaced abroad, many said they had no warning until they faced detention, deportation, or costly emergency trips to U.S. embassies.
A Rome trip turned into an embassy scramble
TikToker Marcy (@marcyistraveling) explained that Italian officials flagged her passport upon arrival in Rome. “They tell me that there’s an Interpol alert on my passport,” she said. Although she carried extensive identification, authorities said someone had previously reported the passport lost or stolen.
However, Marcy said she never made such a report. “That person was not me,” she said, adding that officials claimed the report came from an MTA bus incident months earlier. Because the story made little sense, she questioned how the system worked at all.
Italian authorities still allowed her entry, but Marcy had to visit the U.S. embassy. She swore under oath that she never reported the passport missing. Although staff issued an emergency passport, she still had to pay $165 for it. Later, she faced additional fees to replace her regular passport once home.
“My passport should have never been canceled by somebody else,” Marcy said.
Not the only instance of a false report
In a separate video, TikToker Parker (@porkerga) said Thai officials deported him after immigration flagged his passport. “I was deported from Thailand,” he said, explaining that although he flew through multiple countries on his vacation, it wasn’t until he arrived in Thailand that his passport was allegedly flagged.
Even more confusing, he said the passport was reportedly marked lost before he even received it in the mail. But U.S. agencies later gave conflicting answers.
“They said they have no idea what I’m talking about. They’ve never heard of the situation before,” he explained. “I called the National Passport Information Center, and in their system, it’s not marked as lost. There’s no problem with my passport.” Parker added that this was the most traumatizing experience he and his girlfriend had ever gone through.
@porkerga You could be deported on your next international trip and have no idea. @American Airlines #travel #passportbros #passport #thailand #deported ♬ original sound – Parker Anderson
Similarly, TikToker @poeticjust.ice shared that JFK officials confiscated her passport after she returned from Spain. She said the document had been marked lost years earlier, despite her using it to apply for Global Entry and book international travel.
@poeticjust.ice Edit: I kept saying this year, but I meant march of 2025. Story time on how my passport was marked, lost or stolen without my knowledge. This happened in March and I had no knowledge that my passport was considered invalid. I am not sure what’s going on, but it is scary to see other people going through an issue that I brought to the state department’s attention months ago. I hope they fix this before more people are victimized by this. ##passport##invalidpassport##lostorstolenpassport ##passportissues ♬ original sound – Trafalgar’s Law
As these stories spread, TikToker @sheisimanib amplified the issue. She warned viewers that emergency passports were temporary and costly, and travelers could unknowingly face detention or deportation without advance notice.
The major issue highlighted by all of these travelers was that not only could this happen to anyone, but there was no way to check on the status of your passport without jumping through unnecessary hoops.
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