Paperwork is where repatriations stall — not because any single document is difficult, but because they must arrive in the right order, from different offices, in two countries. Here is the complete list, explained.
Issued in the UK
- Death certificate — from the Register Office after registration; interim coroner documents serve while an investigation is open.
- Coroner’s permission to remove the body — the “Out of England” notice, required before any body leaves England or Wales. Permission normally comes through within days. Scotland uses its own procedure via the procurator fiscal — often simpler.
- Certificate of embalming — from the licensed embalmer who prepares your loved one.
- Certificate of freedom from infection — a medical confirmation that nothing prevents transport on public-health grounds.
- International mortuary passport (laissez-passer) — the document that travels with the coffin across every border.
Needed by the destination country
- Identity documents of the person who died — passport or national ID where available (solvable when not).
- Documents for registering the death at home — the UK certificate, with certified translation where required, is used to record the death in the home country’s civil registry.
- Local funeral home paperwork — whatever the receiving funeral director needs to schedule the ceremony; we coordinate with them directly.
The only list that matters for the family
Everything above is our job. What we actually need from you fits in one line: a phone number we can call with updates, the destination address, and the person’s ID documents if you have them. That is the entire family checklist. The rest — every certificate, every stamp, every translation — is what you hire us for. See how the whole process runs, or call at any hour and we will start today.