Short Answer

Losing your physical electronic residence card does not revoke your legal right to stay, but airlines will deny boarding without it, creating an immediate travel lockdown.

You must obtain an official police theft report before the immigration authority will issue a replacement document.

What Most Expats Don't Realize

You lost your plastic residence card a week before an international business trip and thought you could just show a photo of it at the border. The airline denied you boarding, causing you to miss your conference and forfeit €1,200 in non-refundable travel bookings. You had to wait two months for a new card and pay an unexpected €100 administrative replacement fee.

What To Do

  • Call the emergency blocking hotline at 116 116 to deactivate the online ID function of your lost card.
  • Go to the nearest police station to obtain a formal loss report document (Verlustanzeige).
  • "Ich habe meinen Aufenthaltstitel verloren und brauche eine Verlustanzeige." (I lost my residence permit and need a loss report document.) — tell the police officer at the desk.

The Truth

Germany links your right of border re-entry entirely to a physical, secure document. The system treats a lost card as an immediate security risk, locking you inside the country until a multi-week verification process finishes.