Documents after a death abroad: what to arrange in Ukraine

Does the death have to be registered again in Ukraine?

This is one of the first questions families ask. The answer depends on which documents you already have.

• The consul of Ukraine registered the death. Then you have a Ukrainian death certificate. The consul either hands it to close relatives or sends it, together with the deceased's passport, to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, which passes it on to the family. There is no consular fee for the registration or for the first death certificate.
• You only have a foreign certificate. This happens, for example, in Norway: the Norwegian authorities register the death, and the Ukrainian embassy does not register it again. In Ukraine a foreign certificate is recognised if it has an apostille or legalisation, unless an international treaty provides otherwise. Foreign documents are submitted to the civil registry offices (DRACS) together with a certified translation into Ukrainian.

Whether a separate registration in Ukraine is needed when the death has already been registered abroad, please check with the civil registry office (DRACS). They will tell you what your case requires. How this works in the country where the death occurred, we will explain during our first call.

What the law says:

• In Ukraine a death is registered by the civil registry office (DRACS); the grounds include the medical certificate of death (form No. 106/o) or another document listed in the Rules for State Registration of Civil Status Acts in Ukraine. zakon.rada.gov.ua

Sometimes the documents take a long time to collect. If more than a year has passed since the death, the consul will still register it after checking the documents, with the note “late registration” («Реєстрація з пропуском строку»).

The funeral allowance: the consul's certificate

Ukraine has a state funeral allowance. When the death occurred abroad and the consul registers it, the consul issues a certificate for the social protection authorities at the time of registration. The family applies for the allowance with this certificate.

People often forget about this certificate in the first days. We will remind you and make sure it is among the documents we hand over to the family.

For the amount of the allowance, the deadlines for applying, who can receive it and which documents are needed if the consul did not register the death, please check with the Pension Fund of Ukraine or with the social protection authority where you live. We deliberately do not give the amount here: the current rules are best heard from those who pay it.

Keep the contract, the invoices and the receipts for the transport and the funeral as well: an insurer or an employer may ask for them. Who else can cover the costs is explained in the article “Who pays for bringing a body home from abroad”.

What we hand over to the family together with the deceased

The documents we obtained in the country of death and at the consulate, and that should stay with the family, are handed to you together with the deceased. Depending on the country, this may be:

• the foreign death certificate, with an apostille or legalisation and a translation into Ukrainian, if they were needed;
• the Ukrainian death certificate, if the consul has already issued it; otherwise it will be passed on through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine;
• the consul's certificate for the social protection authorities, for the funeral allowance;
• the passport and other documents of the deceased, if the consulate returned them to the person accompanying the deceased; otherwise they are sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine;
• the contract and the invoices for the transport.

Put everything in one folder. If anything is unclear, call us and we will tell you what each paper is for.

The funeral also needs a death certificate. If we organise the funeral anywhere in Ukraine, we take care of the papers for the cemetery, including the translation and the recognition of foreign documents. You will find more on the page “Funerals across Ukraine”.