What happens when a British citizen dies abroad

Someone you love has died in another country, and you are in this one. The first day is four phone calls, and the order matters because one of them has a deadline and one of them decides who pays. After the four calls there is one decision, and it does not have to be made today.

The first call: the local authorities, through whoever rang you

The hotel, the hospital, the tour rep or the police in that country will already have started the local procedure, and the death will be registered under that country’s law. If the death was sudden, unexplained or in an accident, the local police or a court will investigate before anyone is released, and that is normal there as it is here. Ask whoever rang you three things: where your loved one is now, who has their passport and belongings, and whether the police or a court are involved. Write the answers down; you will be asked for them by everyone else.

The second call: the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

The FCDO has consular staff in almost every country, and a 24-hour line in London, on 020 7008 5000, for a death abroad. Tell them. They will tell you what the local procedure is in plain English, give you a list of local funeral directors and lawyers who speak English, contact the family on your behalf if you need them to, and issue the consular documents the repatriation may need. They can also, for most countries, register the death with the UK so that you have a UK-style record of it, which is optional and costs a fee.

What they will not do is pay for anything, arrange the repatriation, fly anyone anywhere, or interfere in a local investigation. They are advisers and document issuers, and very good ones, and knowing that on the first day saves a great deal of misplaced hope.

The third call: the travel insurer, before any funeral director

If your loved one had travel insurance, ring the assistance line on the policy, not the sales number, and ring it before anything is signed anywhere. Most policies include repatriation cover, and most pay only for a repatriation they have approved and usually arranged themselves. A family that appoints its own funeral director first can find the insurer will not reimburse them. The assistance line will open a case, ask for the death certificate and any police report, and tell you who they are appointing. Does travel insurance cover repatriation explains what is covered, what is excluded and what happens if you would rather use a company of your own.

If there was no insurance, the family pays, or the estate does, and who pays for a repatriation goes through what can step in.

The fourth call: a repatriation specialist

Whether or not the insurer is paying, someone has to do the work in the country of death and the work at the UK end, and it helps to have one person who can explain the whole chain to you. We can tell you on the first call what the local procedure in that country usually looks like, what documents will be needed in both directions, and what shape the timetable is likely to have. You do not need to have chosen us to ask. Repatriation, step by step is that chain written down.

The decision: home, or a funeral there

At the end of the first day, or the second, there is one decision, and it is yours. Your loved one can come home to the UK for their funeral, they can be cremated in the country where they died and their ashes brought home, or they can be buried or cremated there with the family travelling out. Each is a real choice that real families make, and the right one depends on the family, the faith, the cost and the country. Repatriation, local burial or cremation abroad sets the three beside each other without arguing for any of them.

If the answer is home, bringing someone home to the UK is the process from where your loved one is now to a funeral here.

Things that come up in the first week

The belongings. Anything found with your loved one is given to the family if someone is there, and to the local police if not; the consulate can suggest options but cannot send belongings home, so ask the local funeral director to collect them before the repatriation. Keep the passport, because the repatriation needs it, and cancel it once your loved one is home, with form D1.

The local registration. The death certificate from that country is the document everything else rests on. Ask for several certified copies, and ask whether the country issues a multilingual version, which the UK accepts without translation from inside the EU.

The coroner here. If your loved one comes home and the death was violent, unnatural or unexplained, the coroner in England and Wales may open an inquest on arrival. It does not delay the funeral in most cases, but it is a process the family should know about. What happens when the coroner is involved explains it.

Travelling out. Nobody has to. The local funeral director, the consulate and we can do everything between us. Some families go, and a travel policy sometimes pays for one relative’s flight. It is a choice, and it is fine to make either.