Laissez passer for a corpse (mortuary passport)

A laissez passer for a corpse, which some consulates call a mortuary passport, is the international document that goes with a coffin across borders. It records the person’s name, age and the place, date and cause of death, and confirms that the health and coffin rules have been met. Depending on the country, it is issued by the authority where the transport begins or by the destination country’s consulate in the UK, which first asks to see the death certificate, the out of England form and the other papers.

When you will need one

Whenever a coffin crosses a border between countries that follow the 1973 Strasbourg Agreement, the international treaty on repatriation, whether by road or by air. It is not needed for ashes. Some countries, Croatia among them, do not ask for one when the coffin only crosses their territory on the way elsewhere. Others have made it compulsory in their own law: Romania, for example, has required a mortuary passport from its Consulate General in Manchester since 2014.

Who issues it

Either the authority in the country where the transport begins or the consulate of the destination country. Before a consulate issues one, it asks for the UK papers: the death certificate, the out of England form or its Scottish equivalent, the embalming certificate and the freedom from infection certificate. For a road repatriation, some consulates also ask in advance for the driver’s name and passport number, the vehicle’s registration and type, and the names of anyone travelling with it.

What it costs

Each consulate sets its own fee. The Romanian Consulate General charges no consular fee for a mortuary passport, and the Croatian Embassy charges £17.73. The international funeral director usually applies on the family’s behalf, so the family rarely deals with the consulate directly.