If your important documents have been lost or destroyed, you might feel very overwhelmed and stressed – but these documents can be replaced. This FAQ has information about how to get new copies things like your passport, birth certificate and visa.
Some important documents, like your passport, driver’s licence, and eftpos/credit cards, have to be cancelled before you can order replacements. If you don’t know where to start, it’s a good idea to cancel these as soon as you can as a first step.
Be aware of scams being run to get your personal details. It’s a good idea to:
Never disclose PINs, passwords, or your bank details over the phone, text or by email. Your bank will never ask for you to confirm these details outside of its secure login system, so if you’ve received a message or a call asking for this information, it’s probably a scam.
If you think you might have been scammed, contact the police and let them know.  You should contact your bank if you have shared your bank or card details, so they can put a block on your account ASAP.
Some other tips
Under the Privacy Act, you can ask any organisation or business to send you the personal information they hold about you. So, if you’ve provided an organisation or business with a copy of an official document, like a visa, will, or name change certificate in the past, you can email or call and ask them to send you a copy of that document.
If you’ve got insurance, you may be able to claim back the cost of replacing your important documents. Make sure you keep any receipts for these replacements, as your insurance company will want copies of these.
For some documents, you’ll need to provide a statutory declaration to request a replacement. This is a written statement that is signed and witnessed by an official person. For more information about this process, see “statutory declarations.”