Also known as an emergency passport, a temporary passport is used in circumstances where the traveler must begin travel quickly and does not have a usable passport. These types of passports are available only when expedited passport processing is too slow. The application process of getting an emergency passport is similar to getting a new one, so the traveler will need documents proving citizenship and identity in addition to passport photos. Losing a passport or having it stolen are usually not grounds for getting passport fees waived; in fact, getting a temporary passport sometimes requires the traveler to pay a relatively expensive fee.
A temporary passport is used when it is impossible for a person to get a passport through normal methods quickly enough. This situation usually arises when a normal passport is lost, stolen, or if a person did not have a passport to begin with and now must urgently go abroad. An emergency passport is used for the same purposes a normal passport is used for, though some countries place additional restrictions on passports for temporary use. In addition to expiring quickly, for example, temporary passports can often only be used to go to a single destination country, and then it expires. These passports usually come in a booklet form similar to a regular passport and contain the same personal details.
Depending on the issuing country, temporary passports may be issued on a case-by-case basis. A person seeking a passport on a temporary basis might have to provide a lot of details about his or her situation and why he or she feels purchasing the passport is necessary. In some cases, such as when a passport is stolen, the citizen is required to submit a police report along with his or her application for a temporary passport. Most countries will only consider giving someone a temporary passport if he or she convinces the governing agency that urgent travel is necessary, and normal passport procedures will not suffice. Furthermore, if a lost or stolen passport has expired, it sometimes rules out the possibility of getting a temporary one.
The cost of getting an emergency passport is usually the price of a regular passport, plus the cost of the fastest passport processing method available. Due to this, these passports are often very costly. Combined with the fact that some passport services issue the documents only on a case-by-case basis, they are mostly used as a last resort.