How long does a repatriation take

The question every family asks on the first call is when, and the honest answer on the first call is that it depends. That is not evasion. A repatriation is a chain of documents, and each link is issued by an office with its own timetable and, in two cases, its own legal waiting period. What we can do on the first call is tell you which links are in your chain, and by the end of the first day we can usually say what shape the timetable will have.

These are the five things that decide it, in order of how much time they can add. If you already know where your loved one is, our body repatriation page shows the estimate and the usual timing for that country.

1. Whether a coroner, a court or a prosecutor is involved

This is the biggest one and the one nobody can hurry. If the death was sudden, unexplained, violent or in any way not obviously natural, the authorities where it happened will investigate before releasing your loved one. In the UK that is the coroner; abroad it is a court, a prosecutor or a medical examiner, depending on the country. A post-mortem can be a few days. An inquest or a court file can be weeks, and it is not unknown for it to be longer. Nothing a repatriation company does can shorten a court, and any company that tells you otherwise is telling you what you want to hear. What happens when the coroner is involved explains the UK version.

Separately from that, every repatriation out of England and Wales, including a natural death, needs the coroner to be notified, and the law gives the coroner four clear days to reply. We send that notice on day one so the four days overlap with everything else, but they exist.

2. How quickly the death is registered

In the UK, the medical examiner has to clear the cause of death before the registrar will see you, and then the registration is by appointment. Abroad, the local registry has its own hours and its own backlog. The certificate is the document every other document rests on, so a registration on day two and a registration on day six are four days of difference in the whole timetable. This is the one part of the chain a family can shorten themselves, by booking the registration the day it becomes possible.

3. What the destination requires, and how fast its consulate works

Every country wants the death certificate legalised with an apostille, most want it translated, and some want a document from their own consulate in London. The Foreign Office’s legalisation office has a turnaround measured in days; consulates vary from same-day to over a week, and some only receive documents on certain mornings. We know which is which, and that knowledge is a large part of what a family is paying for.

4. Road or air, and the route

Road is predictable: once the documents are in hand, a vehicle leaves and arrives. Air depends on the airline’s cargo schedule for that route, which on a busy route is daily and on a thin one might be twice a week, and a connection adds a day. By road or by air explains how the choice is made for your destination.

5. The day of the week

A death on a Friday afternoon loses the weekend at every office in the chain. Registrars, coroners’ offices, consulates and legalisation offices keep office hours, and so do most of their counterparts abroad. We work through weekends, but the offices we need do not, and a family should expect a death late in the week to add two days for that reason alone.

What a specialist can and cannot shorten

We can shorten the paperwork, by sending the coroner’s notice on day one, by knowing which consulate wants what before it asks, by getting the apostille before the translation rather than after, and by having the vehicle or the cargo booking ready the moment the last document lands. We cannot shorten a coroner’s four days, a court’s investigation, a consulate’s opening hours or an airline’s schedule. When a repatriation is delayed goes through the usual reasons a timetable slips, and most of them are one of the five above arriving unannounced.

What to tell a family who have already set a date

That the date is possible only once the release has happened, and that you will confirm it the day the last document is in hand and not before. Families abroad set dates because that is what their funeral culture does, and the kindest thing is to be clear early rather than hopeful for a week and then late.

Repatriation, step by step puts these five inside the whole process, so you can see where each one sits.