Lost or Stolen Driving Licence in Cambodia

By Testdrive KH team · June 30, 2026 · Updated August 10, 2026

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Losing a driving licence feels much bigger than it is. You pat your pocket at a checkpoint, or open your wallet at a rental shop counter, and the card simply is not there. If it was stolen along with a bag, the worry is sharper, because a document with your name and photo on it is now in someone else’s hands.

The reassuring part is that a missing licence is an administrative problem with an administrative solution. Your entitlement to drive does not disappear because the plastic did - what you lost is the proof, and proof can be reissued. The less reassuring part is that until that proof is back in your pocket, you should not be driving on it.

This guide covers the first 24 hours, when a police report is worth making, what to bring to your local DPWT office, how the lost, stolen, and damaged cases differ, and what to do if you cannot remember your licence number.

Disclaimer: Replacement procedures, required documents, and fees for Cambodian driving licences are set by the General Department of Land Transport (under the Ministry of Public Works and Transport, MPWT) and can change over time or vary by province. Police reporting practice can also differ between local posts. Everything below describes the general shape of the process so you know what to expect and what to ask - confirm the current requirements for your own case with the General Department of Land Transport, your local Department of Public Works and Transport (DPWT) office, and your local police post before you make the trip.

Is your licence expired rather than missing? That is a different process - see our guide to renewing your driving licence in Cambodia. If you have never held a Cambodian licence, start with how to get a driving license in Cambodia.

The first 24 hours: before you assume it is gone

A surprising number of “lost” licences turn up within a day. Before starting any paperwork, spend an hour doing the boring search properly:

• Retrace from the last time you actually held it - not the last time you think you had it, but the last time you took it out and showed it to someone.
• Call everywhere you recently showed ID. Hotels, guesthouses, motorbike and car rental shops, banks, phone shops, gyms, workplaces. A card in a drawer at a rental shop is the single most common ending to this story.
• Check the other places cards live - a second wallet, a jacket pocket, under a motorbike seat, a car door pocket, a document folder, last week’s bag.
• Ask the people you were with, and if you think it fell somewhere specific, ask nearby shopkeepers or security guards, who often collect dropped cards.

Do not spend a week on this. Give it a focused day, and if it has not surfaced, start the replacement.

As for identity misuse: a driving licence on its own is not a bank card and cannot be used to move your money, so the worry is usually smaller than it feels. If it vanished with a wallet of bank cards, deal with the bank first. If your national ID card or passport went too, report those through their own channels - they matter more than the licence.

When to file a police report - and why it matters for a stolen card

There is a real difference between “I misplaced it” and “someone took it”, and the police report is where that difference gets recorded. For a stolen licence - taken in a bag snatch, a pickpocketing, or a break-in - a report at your local police post is generally worth making:

1. It timestamps the loss. If the card is later used by someone else, or found somewhere you would rather not be associated with, there is an official record showing you reported it gone beforehand.
2. Some offices may ask for it. Practice varies, but a replacement application for a stolen document is exactly the case where an office may want to see that a report was made.
3. It can cover other documents at once. If the same theft took your ID, phone, and bank cards, one visit documents the whole loss.

For a licence that is simply lost, a report is often not the central requirement - identity documents and the office’s own records usually do the work. Practice differs between provinces and posts, so ask your local DPWT office directly: do I need a report from the police for this?

At the police post, bring your national ID or passport, and be ready to say where and roughly when the loss happened and what else went missing. Photograph whatever document you are given before handing the original to anyone.

What to bring to your local DPWT office

Replacements are handled by the same type of office that handles new applications and renewals: your local Department of Public Works and Transport (DPWT) office. The core of the application is showing that you are you, and that a licence was already issued to you. Your checklist:

• A photo or photocopy of the licence. The single most useful thing you can have - a phone photo showing your number, category, and dates answers most questions instantly.
• Your licence number written down somewhere: a phone note, an old email, an insurance policy, an employer file, or a rental agreement.
• Your national ID card (Cambodian citizens) or passport plus valid visa or residence documents (foreign residents holding a Cambodian licence).
• Any paperwork from the original application - a receipt, a medical certificate copy, a driving school document.
• Recent passport-style photographs. Bring a few spare, as with any licence application.
• A police report, if the card was stolen. The damaged card itself, if it was damaged.

You will not have all of these. The more you bring, the fewer follow-up trips you make. Then:

1. Call ahead or ask locally what your province’s office wants, and whether an appointment is needed. This saves more wasted trips than anything else.
2. Bring originals plus photocopies - offices commonly want to see both.
3. Complete the form at the office, stating clearly whether the licence was lost, stolen, or damaged, since that affects which supporting documents they ask for.
4. Pay the applicable fee, which is set by the relevant authorities and can be adjusted. Ask the amount when you call rather than trusting a figure you read online.
5. Ask two questions before leaving the counter: how long it will take, and whether you get an interim document meanwhile - and if so, whether traffic police accept it.

If you are more comfortable working in Khmer, a registered driving school can often help with the paperwork side, as many drivers do for renewals.

Replacement or fresh application: what is the difference?

A replacement (sometimes called a duplicate) reissues a licence you already hold: your existing entitlement, category, and validity carry over, so you generally are not starting over with tests and training. A fresh application is what someone with no licence goes through - full documentation, medical requirements, theory test, practical assessment. If your card is missing but your licence is current, you are normally in the first situation.

It gets blurry when a missing licence is also expired. The office may then treat the case as a renewal, or as something closer to a new application - a question for the counter, not for a guess. Our renewal guide covers how expiry length changes things. Either way, a refresher is never wasted: a free mock exam takes 20 minutes.

Lost, stolen, or damaged: how the cases differ

All three end at the same counter, but the paperwork emphasis differs.

The damaged case is the easiest to get right:

• Bring the card even if it looks destroyed. Cracked, snapped, washed, or melted on a dashboard, it is still evidence a licence was issued to you, and usually still carries readable fragments of the number or dates. Do not throw the pieces away; put them all in an envelope.
• Unreadable is a problem even though you still have it. If an officer cannot read your name, photo, or category, the card is not doing its job. Replace it rather than hoping.

What if you cannot remember your licence number or category?

Common, and not fatal. Your details sit in the issuing authority’s records, not only on the card.

• Bring strong identity documents. Your national ID or passport, your full name as it appears on official records, and your date of birth are the usual keys to a records search.
• Search your own digital history. Check photos taken around the time the licence was issued, and email or messaging attachments. Many people photographed the card once and forgot.
• Do not guess your category on the form. Ask the office to confirm it from their records - guessing wrong is worse than admitting you do not know. For what the categories mean, see our guide to Cambodian licence categories.
• Foreign residents: bring the passport used for the original application if it differs from your current one - mismatched passport numbers are a common source of delay. Our guide for foreigners and expats covers the rest.

Driving legally while you wait

This is the part people want a loophole for, and there generally is not one. Drivers in Cambodia are expected to carry their licence while driving or riding, along with the documents that go with the vehicle - see documents to carry while driving in Cambodia for the full set. A licence in an office tray, or lost entirely, cannot be shown at a checkpoint.

• Arrange other transport until the replacement arrives. Inconvenient, but far less so than being stopped without a licence.
• If you are given an interim document, ask what it covers. Do not assume a receipt for an application is the same as a licence - ask whether traffic police accept it.
• Do not borrow, alter, or improvise. Using someone else’s licence, or presenting a photo of your old card as though it were the card, is far more serious than a missing document. The photo is a record for you, not a substitute.

Prevention: turn a painful replacement into an easy one

Almost everything that makes a replacement slow comes down to being unable to prove what you already had. Five minutes now removes that permanently:

• Photograph both sides of your licence today. Good light, flat surface, in focus, all text readable. Do it before you need it.
• Store the photo where you can reach it without your phone - a cloud album, an email to yourself, a password manager note. If licence and phone vanish in the same bag, a photo saved only on that phone is no help.
• Write the number, category, and dates down as text, not only as an image. Text is searchable; one photo in a gallery of thousands is not. Set a calendar reminder for the expiry date while you are there, so you never face a replacement and a renewal at once.
• Keep a photocopy at home, separate from the wallet you carry. Paper survives water and dead batteries.

Do this once and the worst case becomes an afternoon of paperwork rather than a week of reconstructing your own records from memory.

Final thoughts

A missing licence feels urgent because it is - you are off the road until it is sorted - but the process itself is ordinary. Search properly for a day. File a police report if the card was stolen. Gather whatever proves the licence existed, especially a photo or the number. Take your identity documents to your local DPWT office, say clearly whether it was lost, stolen, or damaged, and ask about timing and any interim document. Then photograph the new card before it goes into your wallet.

And since you are already thinking about licences and rules, a few minutes on a free practice test or some category practice is a good way to spend the wait - so the rules are fresh when you are back behind the wheel.