What is Form I-131A?

Form I-131A is the application for carrier documentation: a paper that lets the airline or ship allow you to board back to the United States when you lost the document that normally allows it.

The official page describes it for permanent residents whose card or reentry permit was lost, stolen or destroyed during a temporary trip. It also mentions it for certain people whose advance travel permission was lost while abroad.

This form is not sent to any address. The official page says it is filed in person, at the consular section of a U.S. embassy or consulate in the country where you are.

The fee is paid online to USCIS before the appointment, and at the appointment you bring the printed, signed form, your passport and a recent passport-style photo. The official page lists what they ask for.

According to the official page, it is filed by the resident who is outside the country with nothing to board with. If your time abroad was longer than the instructions contemplate, the situation changes; that is a legal question and we do not answer it.

A licensed attorney or a Department of Justice accredited representative can guide you before the appointment. The official directories are linked below.

Your valid passport, a recent photo and any proof of your residence you have at hand: a copy of the card, your A-Number, the approval notice, a photo of the lost document on your phone.

If the document was stolen, the local police report helps. The general list and the official sources live on the form's page; we do not repeat them here.

We ask for your details and your travel dates, one thing at a time, and transfer the answers onto the official form with technical checks. You receive an unsigned PDF.

You print it, review it, sign it by hand and take it to your appointment at the consulate. You hand it in there yourself. We do not hand it in and we do not speak with the consulate for you.

Showing up without having paid the fee online. Bringing an old photo. Writing the date you left the United States from memory when the passport stamp says otherwise.

And filling out this form when the card expired rather than got lost. An expired card and a lost card are different situations; the instructions explain which one this filing covers.

The consulate decides at the appointment or shortly after and, if it grants it, places the document in your passport. With that you can board. What happens on arrival is up to the officer at the port of entry, not to us.

Once back, the lost card is replaced through a different filing, Form I-90. We explain it in its own guide.

We are not a law firm and we do not give legal advice. We fill the form in with your answers and check the formatting; whether you keep your residence after a long trip is not ours to decide.