Applying for a replacement passport for non-EU nationals (travel document for non-EU nationals)

All foreign nationals must hold a recognised and valid passport or passport substitute.

German passport substitutes may only be issued to non-German nationals in very exceptional cases, as this constitutes an encroachment on another state’s passport sovereignty.

The travel document for foreign nationals is one such passport substitute. It may only be issued to you under certain conditions if, as a national of a non-EU country, you can prove that you do not hold a passport or passport substitute and cannot obtain one by reasonable means.

If you do not hold a passport or passport substitute, you must therefore first make every effort to obtain one from the relevant authorities in your country of origin, for example at the diplomatic mission there. When applying for a travel document for foreign nationals, you should, where possible, provide evidence of such efforts.

There is no automatic entitlement to the issue of a travel document for foreign nationals. Decisions are always made on a case-by-case basis; only the formal requirements are set out here.

Please note: You will not be issued with a travel document if your country of origin refuses to issue you with a passport or passport substitute for reasons that are also recognised under German passport law.

Please note: You may also be issued with a travel document as

• refugee under the Geneva Convention on Refugees or
• stateless person or as a stateless person under the Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons

Note: As a national of one of the countries listed in Annex II to Regulation (EU) 2018/1806, you may be eligible to receive an emergency travel document under certain conditions. Further information on this can be found in the text‘Applying for a passport substitute for foreign nationals (emergency travel document)’.