Someone died in another country and you're here. Or someone died here and their family, burial place, or bank accounts are somewhere else. Either direction, the work is the same three problems: proving the death, moving the person, and settling what they owned. This is how each one works.
Start with the consulate
When a US citizen dies in another country, the nearest US embassy or consulate is the first call. Consular staff locate and inform the next of kin and explain the local options for burial there or return of the remains. Once the foreign death certificate is issued, the consulate prepares the Consular Report of Death of a U.S. Citizen Abroad, form DS-2060, now issued electronically. That report is the document US courts, banks, and insurers accept in place of the foreign death certificate, and up to 20 certified copies come free; later copies are ordered from the State Department.
If nobody from the family is in the country, a consular officer has statutory responsibility for the personal estate: taking possession of personal effects, inventorying them, and following the family’s instructions.
The US government does not pay to bring anyone home. The State Department states it has no funds to assist with the return of remains or ashes; every cost of preparation, shipping, and burial is the family’s, and the consulate’s role with money is limited to helping transmit private funds overseas. The realistic options are the same everywhere: burial in the country where the death happened, local cremation, shipping the body to the US, shipping the ashes, or carrying the ashes home in your luggage. Ashes are consistently the least expensive and least complicated path, which matters when the estate is small and the family is far away.
The federal rule, 42 CFR 71.55, is short: remains entering the US must be in a leak-proof container, must be consigned directly to a licensed funeral home, cemetery, or crematory, and, unless embalmed, must travel with a death certificate stating the cause of death, in English or translated. Fully cremated remains sit outside the rule entirely; ashes are not regulated as human remains at the border. Deaths from certain infectious diseases can require a CDC import permit.
The consulate builds the paper packet that travels with a body: its Consular Mortuary Certificate, the local death certificate, the foreign funeral director’s affidavit that the casket holds only the remains, and the transit permit. For ashes carried on a flight, embassy guidance is consistent: a sealed urn in a material that can be x-rayed, declared to customs on both ends.
The US barely regulates the export of remains; the CDC states it does not regulate exportation, though state and local rules can apply. The requirements that matter are the destination country’s, enforced through its consulate in the US, which issues the mortuary certificate the airline and the receiving country expect. That is why each country page below leads with its consulate’s document list. The pattern is the same everywhere: the death certificate showing cause of death, proof of embalming with a no-contagious-disease letter for a body or a cremation certificate for ashes, a transit permit, and a fee that varies by consulate. Your US funeral home has done this before; make it talk to the receiving funeral home before anything is booked.
Social Security runs Federal Benefits Units at embassies and consulates worldwide, and they do real work: report the death of a beneficiary through them, and file survivor claims, including the lump-sum death payment, without setting foot in the US. Report the death immediately even if you have no death certificate yet; benefits paid for any month after the month of death must be returned, and waiting only grows the amount to pay back. The SSA keeps a country directory of which embassy serves where.
The State Department’s official record of a US citizen’s death in another country, form DS-2060, prepared by the embassy from the foreign death certificate. US courts, banks, and insurers generally accept it in place of the foreign certificate. Up to 20 certified copies are free at issuance, and more can be ordered from the State Department later.
Does the US government pay to bring a body home?
No. The State Department states it has no funds for returning remains or ashes of citizens who die abroad. The family pays for everything, and the consulate helps move your money and instructions to the foreign funeral home, so ask it for the local funeral home list before wiring anything to anyone.
Can I fly home with my parent’s ashes?
Yes. Fully cremated remains are exempt from the federal human-remains import rule, so the border question is paperwork, not permission. Carry the death certificate and cremation certificate, use a sealed urn in a material that x-rays cleanly rather than metal, and declare what you are carrying to customs in both countries.
How do I tell Social Security about a death that happened overseas?
Through the Federal Benefits Unit at the US embassy serving that country; the SSA lists which embassy covers where. Report immediately, even before the death certificate exists, because payments for any month after the month of death must go back, and survivors can file their claims through the same unit from abroad.
Consulate requirements and foreign fees change, and individual consulates within one country can differ. Confirm the current document list with the consulate you'll actually use before booking anything. This page is general information, not legal advice. Reviewed August 18, 2026; every fact links to the official page it came from.