Affidavit of Loss: Who Needs One and What It Costs

An affidavit of loss is not a form you download. It is a notarial act: your sworn account of how something was lost, sworn before someone authorised to administer an oath. The agency accepting it is relying on the oath, not the wording.

What it unlocks, and what that costs

The affidavit itself is rarely the expensive part. It is the precondition for a replacement that has its own published fee.

A first BIR TIN card is free; only the replacement costs ₱100.00. LTO adds a ₱30.00 clearance fee applicable to all types and a ₱10.00 legal research fund charge, and publishes a total processing time of 3 working days, 2 hours and 40 minutes for a lost plate.

LTO also wants more than the affidavit: a valid government ID, a Motor Vehicle Inspection Report, and a Motor Vehicle Clearance Certificate with a Special Bank Receipt from the PNP Highway Patrol Group. The affidavit opens the process rather than completing it.

For the Bureau of Immigration, the original ACR I-Card is normally surrendered on cancellation, and the affidavit of loss stands in place of the card where it cannot be. The ACR I-Card guide covers the card itself.

Abroad, it is one dollar rate in nine currencies

This is where the affidavit stops being incidental. Every lost Philippine passport needs one, and Philippine posts charge for it as a consular notarial act.

Two posts publish the dollar figure directly and settle what the rate is:

Every other post publishes only the local conversion of that same US $25.00:

Nine currencies, one charge. The figures look unrelated because the conversion is per post, not because the service differs.

Two posts add a surcharge rather than a different fee. Ottawa charges CAD 15.50 for expedited notarisation of the affidavit on top of the CAD 38.75, and Tel Aviv an expedite fee of 10.00 dollars or NIS 40.00 per document.

The affidavit is small next to the passport

The pattern holds across the network: the replacement is 6 times the affidavit, near enough, because both come off the same base schedule. Ottawa publishes its own all-in total of CAD 286.75 for a lost valid ePassport, being CAD 232.50 plus CAD 38.75 plus the CAD 15.50 expedited notarisation.

Some posts want a police report as well. Kuwait requires a copy of the lost passport where available, a police report with English translation, and a notarised affidavit of loss.

Renewing a passport abroad covers the ordinary case, and the passport renewal guide the domestic one.

Loss, mutilation and destruction are priced alike but named apart

Posts distinguish the documents while charging the same:

Vienna’s wording is the useful one: it asks for the circumstances in detail. That is what the affidavit is for, and it is why a template with the facts left vague is the version that gets rejected.

Where this goes wrong

Treating it as a form rather than an oath. The notarisation is the operative part. An unnotarised statement is not an affidavit.

Expecting a published national fee. There is none in the Philippines. Notarial charges are set locally, and only the replacement fees are published.

Sending a representative. BIR requires personal appearance for a TIN card replacement and accepts no authorised representative.

Bringing only the affidavit to LTO. A lost plate also needs a Motor Vehicle Inspection Report and a PNP Highway Patrol Group clearance with a Special Bank Receipt.

Assuming a foreign post is more expensive. EUR 25.00, CAD 38.75 and VND 700,000 are the same US $25.00 charge.

Leaving the circumstances vague. Vienna asks for them in detail, and a police report is required at some posts to corroborate them.