Every document needed to bring someone home from the UK to Romania

Six documents stand between a death in the UK and a funeral in Romania. They have to be issued in order, because each one is the evidence for the next. Below is the sequence, with a note at every stage saying whether it is yours to obtain or ours.

1. The death certificate

Yours, with our help.

Nothing starts until the death is registered. Since September 2024 a medical examiner reviews the death before the register office can see it, and the five days you are given run from that confirmation rather than from the death itself. We set that out in full in registering a death in England and Wales.

Order more certified copies than feel necessary. They are £12.50 each. One goes for the apostille and does not come back quickly, one goes to the consulate, and Romanian authorities will want their own. Families who order two almost always come back for more.

2. The coroner's Form 104

Ours.

A body cannot leave England and Wales without notice to the coroner for the district, given on the form generally known as Form 104. The coroner then has four clear days from receiving it before the removal can go ahead. They can release it earlier and often do, but no funeral director can guarantee that, and no airline will hold a booking for it.

This is where self-arranged repatriations come apart. Families book a flight, then find the four days have not run. Do not book transport until the coroner has signed and returned the form. The same requirement applies to moving someone to Scotland.

3. The apostille on the death certificate

Ours, and this is where the time goes.

A UK death certificate has to be legalised before Romanian authorities will act on it. That is done by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, which attaches an apostille. The routes are not equal, and the difference matters more than any other single choice in a repatriation:

• Standard postal service, £45, up to 25 working days, plus postage both ways. Open to anyone.
• e-Apostille, £35, up to 2 working days. Open to anyone, but only for certain document types.
• Next working day, £40. Registered businesses only.
• Same day, £100. Registered businesses only, and every application has to be pre-approved.

Read those last two lines again. The fast routes are not available to a family acting on its own behalf; they are open only to businesses registered with the FCDO. A family doing this alone is choosing between up to 25 working days and an e-Apostille that may not cover what they need. That is the honest answer to why a funeral director moves faster than you can, and it is worth more than any promise about care.

4. Embalming and coffin certificates

Ours.

For transport out of the country the body is embalmed and placed in a coffin built for international carriage, typically zinc lined and sealed. Two certificates come out of this: one confirming the embalming was carried out, and one confirming the coffin was sealed and contains only the named person. Both are produced by us and both travel with the coffin.

A certificate from a public health authority confirming the body presents no communicable disease risk is also normally required. We obtain it.

5. The mortuary passport

Ours to apply for, yours to supply some of the evidence.

The mortuary passport, sometimes called the mortuary pass or laissez-passer, is issued by the Romanian consular service and is the document that actually authorises the coffin to travel and to be received in Romania. Without it the repatriation does not happen.

The consulate sets the list, so confirm it with the office covering your area rather than relying on any website, including this one. What is generally asked for is the death certificate with its apostille, the embalming certificate, the public health certificate, the deceased's Romanian identity documents, the flight or transport details, and a written request from a next of kin. One requirement catches families out: confirmation that a burial place is available in a cemetery in Romania. If the plot is not arranged, arrange it early.

Romanian consular services in the UK operate from the Embassy in London at Arundel House, 4 Palace Green, W8 4QD, with further offices in Manchester and Edinburgh.

6. The deceased's Romanian documents

Yours.

The consulate needs to establish who the person was under Romanian law, which UK papers do not prove. Find the Romanian identity card or passport, and the birth certificate. A marriage certificate is needed where the name has changed. These are usually in Romania rather than in the UK, so this is the one task worth handing to family at home on day one. It is also the item that most often holds everything else up, because nobody thinks to look for it until the consulate asks.

Who does what, in one list

• You: register the death, order the certified copies, and find the deceased's Romanian identity and birth certificates.
• Us: Form 104 and the coroner, the apostille, embalming, the coffin and its certificates, the public health certificate, the mortuary passport application, and the transport.

We arrange this from anywhere in the UK, not only London. Families in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Luton, Leicester, Coventry, Nottingham and Sheffield are handled the same way, because the coroner and the consulate work to the same rules wherever the death happened.

Frequently asked questions

What documents are needed to repatriate a body from the UK to Romania?

The death certificate, the coroner's Form 104 authorising removal out of England and Wales, an apostille on the certificate, the embalming and coffin sealing certificates, and the mortuary passport issued by the Romanian consular office. You also supply the deceased's Romanian identity documents.

Can we arrange the paperwork ourselves?

Some of it, but not the fast apostille. The next working day and same day legalisation services are open to registered businesses only, so a family acting alone faces up to 25 working days on the standard route.

How soon can we book a flight?

Not until the coroner has signed and returned Form 104, which is normally four clear days after they receive it. Booking before that is the most common way a repatriation gets delayed.