Can a family bring a body home from abroad themselves?

In brief: the law allows it, but there are many requirements

• The Customs Code of Ukraine provides that citizens take a coffin with a body across the border with a written statement and the documents the law requires.
• The body must be in a hermetically sealed coffin: wooden on the outside, with a soldered zinc liner inside (the law calls this a hermetic metal coffin). The coffin is put under official seal.
• At the border you show the death certificate and a certificate that the body and the coffin contain no prohibited items. The certificate is issued by an authority of the country of death, and the Ukrainian consulate legalises it.
• The country of death has its own rules for taking a body out, and in many of them a separate permit is needed. In some countries only an authorised or licensed funeral home may transport a body: in Austria and France, for example.
• By air, a body usually travels in the cargo hold. This is a separate shipment with its own documents.
• If something is missing, the body can be held up, either in the country of death or at the border.

The coffin: hermetically sealed and under seal

Ukrainian law requires the body to be in a hermetic metal coffin that is put under official seal. In practice this is a hermetically sealed coffin with a zinc liner. An ordinary wooden coffin without a liner will not do for crossing a border.

In the countries that are parties to the 1973 Strasbourg Agreement the requirements are similar. The coffin must be hermetic, with absorbent material inside. Two designs are suitable: a wooden coffin with walls at least 20 mm thick and a soldered zinc liner, or a single wooden coffin at least 30 mm thick, lined with zinc. For a flight the coffin needs either a valve that equalises the pressure or sufficient strength, as recognised by the authority of the country of departure.

In Poland, for example, a coffin to be taken out of the country must be wooden, covered with sheet metal or fitted with a metal insert, or made of metal. A 5 cm layer of moisture-absorbing material goes on the bottom, the coffin is placed in a tightly closed wooden box, and a sanitary inspector puts it under seal. So the seal is put on not by the family but by an official.

More in the article “Coffin and embalming for bringing a body to Ukraine” and on the page “Coffins and sealed metal liners”.

The documents of the country of death and the permit to take the body out

A death certificate alone is not enough. To take the body out you also need a permit from the country where the death occurred. Who issues it depends on the country:

• Poland. The permit to take the body out is issued by the district sanitary inspector or by the border sanitary inspector. It is issued only after the documents from the country of burial have been submitted; for Ukraine, these are documents from the Ukrainian consulate.
• France. The permit to take the body out of the country is issued by the prefect of the département where the coffin was closed.
• Austria. For transport across a border, a multilingual body passport is issued: the Leichenpass. In most federal states it is issued by the district authority at the place of death, once the death has been registered.
• Germany. The death certificate must carry an apostille. Without one, the document is invalid for Ukraine and blocks the entry of the coffin or the urn.

In the countries that are parties to the Strasbourg Agreement, a special document accompanies the body: the laissez-passer, or “body passport”. It is issued after checks that all formalities are complete, that the coffin meets the requirements, and that it holds only the body and personal items for the burial. Ukraine is not on the list of parties to the Agreement. So at the Ukrainian border this document does not by itself replace the Ukrainian documents.

All of these papers are in the language of the country, often with an apostille and a certified translation into Ukrainian. The full list is on the page “Documents for bringing the deceased home to Ukraine from abroad”.

By air: in the cargo hold

Airlines usually carry bodies in the cargo hold of either a cargo plane or a passenger plane. This is a separate shipment with its own documents and approvals.

Some airlines accept only embalmed bodies. Whether they will take the coffin depends on the type of aircraft, on the entry requirements and on the approval of the countries of departure, transit and destination. It is worth agreeing the documents with all of these countries before you book the shipment.

When we transport the body, part of the journey may be by air: the plane flies to an airport near Ukraine, and the last stretch is by road. The air leg takes from 2.5 hours. The body's journey home to Ukraine takes from 24 hours after collection. More on the page “Air transport of the deceased to Ukraine”.

If you are thinking of transporting the body yourselves

The decision is yours. If you are thinking of doing it yourselves, please call us first. We will tell you what the country of death requires in your case and give you the price of the full transport within 5 minutes, so that you can compare calmly, without pressure.

When we transport the body, we take these steps. We take on the documents in the country of death, the consulate, the coffin, the preparation of the body, the road and the border. Even where a licensed funeral home is required, we run the case ourselves. We have worked since 2015, under a contract: the website shows “from” prices, and the contract states a fixed sum for your case. Transporting a body costs from €800, depending on the country; prices by country are on the page “Prices”. While the deceased is on the way, the family can prepare the funeral calmly. How to do it is explained in the article “How to arrange a funeral”.

If the cremation has already taken place abroad, the family can also bring the urn themselves, with the documents for the border. Which documents are needed is in the article “Customs clearance of an urn with ashes”; about our service, see the page “Transport of an urn with ashes to Ukraine”.

And if no one in the family can travel, read how to bring the deceased home without a trip.