Someone has died. Here is what to do first.
This guidance applies to every country. What your consulate will and will not do, the documents you will need, and the mistakes that cost families the most. Free to anyone, member or not.
The first hour
- Do not sign anything or pay a deposit yet. Nothing is lost by waiting two hours. A great deal can be lost by signing in the first ten minutes.
- Call your consulate before you hire a funeral home. Some assistance programmes will not help at all if you have already engaged one or paid in advance.
- Get the death certificate started. Everything else waits on it. The hospital, coroner or medical examiner issues it.
- Ask three funeral homes for a written, itemised quote for international shipment. Prices for identical service commonly differ by thousands of dollars.
- Ask whether the person had any coverage — life or final expense policy, employer or union benefit, credit union plan, travel insurance. Families often find one they had forgotten.
- If your association is in the Mutual Aid Compact, tell your officer now, not after you have signed. Verification takes time you can start earning tonight.
It depends entirely on your country, and the difference is enormous. Consular assistance falls into roughly three patterns. Find out which one applies to you in the first phone call, because it changes everything about how you plan.
Some governments operate real repatriation programmes covering a significant share of transport for families who document financial hardship. Even here it is discretionary, partial, and reviewed case by case.
Help exists but is reserved for families who are genuinely indigent, or for nationals who were registered workers abroad. Many families assume they qualify and do not.
The consulate issues the papers without which the coffin cannot travel, and nothing more. The full cost falls to the family and the community. This is the most common pattern.
Two rules that hold almost everywhere: assistance covers transport and required documents, not ceremonies or an upgraded casket — and where it is granted, the money is usually paid directly to the service providers, not reimbursed to the family. Do not pay first expecting to be repaid.
What consulates generally do
- Verify the deceased's nationality
- Issue the mortuary pass, transit authorisation or equivalent — remains cannot legally travel without it
- Review the medical and sanitary certificates required for entry
- Coordinate with authorities and with the receiving funeral service at home
- Where a programme exists, review requests for financial assistance
- Help locate and notify family at home
What consulates generally do not do
- Choose, hire or pay the funeral home for you
- Pay for ceremonies, viewings, flowers or an upgraded casket
- Reimburse costs you have already paid
- Arrange onward transport from the arrival airport to the home town — a real cost budgets routinely forget
- Follow up after authorising. Nobody will call to check it finished
Documents almost every country requires
Names and exact requirements vary by country. Ask your consulate for the list and the order — a document requested too early is rejected, and one requested too late delays everything.
What it typically costs
Typical ranges including preparation, documentation, consular fees and air transport. They do not include onward transport inside your home country, which can add substantially. Planning estimates, not quotes.
“My relative, a citizen of [country], has died in [city, state]. I have not yet engaged a funeral home. I need to know what documents you require, in what order, and whether any assistance may be available in this case.”
Then ask these five, and write the answers down:
- Is there any financial assistance, and what would we have to document?
- What must I avoid doing before the process starts, so I do not lose that possibility?
- What is the complete document list, and in what order must I obtain them?
- What is the realistic processing time right now?
- Is cremation accepted for entry, and does it change the documents required?
The mistakes that cost families the most
- Hiring the funeral home before calling the consulate. It can cost you access to assistance and all of your negotiating power.
- Paying in advance and expecting reimbursement. Assistance is almost always paid to providers, not back to you.
- Accepting the first quote. Identical shipments are quoted thousands of dollars apart in the same city.
- Paying anyone a cash fee to “handle the consulate.” No such role exists.
- Buying an expensive casket for transport. The airline requires a transport container; the casket can usually be chosen at home for far less.
- Budgeting only as far as the arrival airport. Transport to the home town is often a large additional cost.
- Booking a flight before the receiving funeral service is confirmed in writing. Remains have been stranded on arrival.
- Ruling out cremation without asking the family. Where it is acceptable, it can cut the cost by more than half.
- Letting two or three association officers quietly cover the gap from their own pockets. Bring it to the network instead.
Contact the consulate that serves the place where the death occurred — not the one nearest your home. They are frequently different, and the wrong office will send you back.
Search for your country's name plus “consulate” and your state. Ask for the protection department, assistance to nationals, or consular services, depending on the country.
Your funeral director can usually file the dossier on your behalf, and many consulates prefer it that way — they expect the paperwork from a licensed operator.
We are building a page for every country
Country pages give the exact programme, the exact document names, the office to call and the current processing time — confirmed by telephone with that consulate and re-verified twice a year.
We are building them in the order communities ask for them. Tell us yours and we will write to you the week it is published. Associations in the Compact get theirs first.
If the money is not there
Member associations in the Mutual Aid Compact can bring a verified case to the network. Funds are paid directly to the funeral home, never to a family member, and every case is published openly.
If your association is not in the Compact, ask your president to look at it. It is free to join and takes two signatures.
Mutual aid line: (213) 557-4575 · members@tasamericas.org
If nobody answers, leave a message and email us — we return every message about a death the same day.