Document problems are among the most preventable crises a deployed worker can face — and among the most serious when they happen. The rules below are worth treating as absolute.
The non-negotiables
- Your passport stays with you. No employer, accommodation provider, or intermediary has any right to hold it — not "for safekeeping," not "for processing," not "until the contract ends." Passport retention by others is a recognised indicator of exploitation and a grievance matter from day one.
- Carry copies, store originals safely. Day to day, a copy of your passport and residence permit is enough for most situations. Originals belong in a secure place you control.
- Digital backups in your own accounts. Passport, visa, permit, contract, payslips — photographed and stored in cloud storage that only you can access. Not on an agent's phone; not only on your own phone, which can be lost or stolen with everything on it.
If a document is lost or taken
Loss or theft: report to local police, obtain the report copy, and contact your embassy or consulate for replacement travel documents — your backed-up copies make this dramatically faster. Retention by someone else: state plainly, once, that you require your passport back; if it is not returned, that is a matter for our grievance channels and the official worker-protection mechanisms, not for months of polite waiting.
An hour of copying and uploading before departure buys a lifetime of easier recoveries. Do it the week you receive your visa, and tell your family where the digital copies live.