Repatriation of a body from Ukraine to Moldova

What Moldova requires when a body is brought in

On the Moldovan side, the key document is the mortuary passport. Below is what Moldova's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, its embassies and the Public Services Agency say about bringing in a body; each point links to its source.

The mortuary passport and the permit

• Moldova's Ministry of Foreign Affairs: a body can be transported to Moldova only under the conditions set by the national law of the country where the death occurred and in line with the applicable international rules. mfa.gov.md
• International transport of a body to Moldova requires a mortuary passport. It is issued by Moldovan embassies or consulates, or by local authorities of states party to the 1973 Strasbourg Agreement on the transfer of corpses. istanbul.mfa.gov.md

Preparing the body

• The Moldovan embassy issues the permit to transport a body after it has been embalmed according to sanitary standards (as described by the Embassy of Moldova in Bulgaria). bulgaria.mfa.gov.md

Registering the death in Moldova

This is not a condition for crossing the border but a separate step: the death of a Moldovan citizen is entered in Moldovan records.

• Moldova's Ministry of Foreign Affairs: if the deceased was a citizen of Moldova, a death certificate issued abroad is transcribed (entered in Moldovan records) on the basis of a document authenticated in the established manner. Whether legalisation or an apostille is needed depends on the agreements between the states. mfa.gov.md
• To transcribe a foreign death certificate of a citizen of Moldova (enter the death in Moldovan records), the applicant submits, among other documents, proof of the deceased's Moldovan citizenship and civil status documents proving the applicant's relationship to the deceased (Moldova's Ministry of Foreign Affairs). mfa.gov.md
• On its page on registering civil status events that occurred abroad, Moldova's Public Services Agency states that official documents issued in Ukraine are recognised without an apostille or consular legalisation, on the basis of a bilateral treaty on legal assistance in civil, family and criminal matters. asp.gov.md
• Moldova's Public Services Agency: only events of citizens of Moldova are entered in Moldovan registers. For citizens of Moldova, civil status documents issued by foreign authorities (including death records) are submitted in the original or as a notarised copy, with a translation into Romanian. asp.gov.md

The Ukrainian side

We deal with the documents for taking the body out of Ukraine and for crossing the border.

The Ukrainian paperwork is the same for every country; it is all on the page “Repatriation of a body from Ukraine to another country”.

An urn with ashes

• For an urn with ashes, no approval from the Moldovan embassy is needed and no mortuary passport is issued; the original death certificate with an apostille and the cremation certificate are required. This is how the Embassy of Moldova in the USA explains it; the procedure may differ elsewhere. sua.mfa.gov.md

We can also bring an urn with ashes to Moldova. We will tell you what it costs once we have talked: press “Get a price”.

Send a request for repatriation to Moldova