Procedure Over Law: How Lost Passports Become ‘Unreportable’ in Romania
Losing a passport or wallet while travelling in Romania should be a routine administrative matter. In practice, it often turns into a bureaucratic standoff, where local police refuse to register the loss simply because it may have occurred in another city. For many expats, this means being sent back across the country to “the place of loss”—an absurd expectation in a country where a single train journey can take most of a day.
