Repatriation from Italy: documents and timelines

Three Italian offices shape every case

When a body is being sent home, the family meets three main local authorities: the comune (the municipality), where the death is registered; the local health authority, which checks that the coffin has been prepared properly; and the prefecture, which grants permission to take the body out of Italy. The order between them is fixed, because each step rests on a paper obtained at the one before. That is why, in the first days, what matters most is that one experienced local agency takes the case in hand, so the documents do not end up scattered among different people. In the end it is this chain of offices that sets the timetable.

Recording the death at the comune

In Italy a death is registered by the civil registrar (Ufficiale dello stato civile) of the comune where the person died. It is usually reported by the hospital or by the funeral agency, once a doctor has confirmed the death. On the strength of that entry, the comune issues an extract or certificate from the death record (estratto dell'atto di morte), and every later stage will ask for it. Ask the agency to collect several copies straight away: one for the apostille, a second for the consulate and a third for insurance or banking matters, so nobody has to queue at the comune a second time.

The prosecutor and investigations after a sudden death

If the death followed a road crash, an accident at work or circumstances nobody can explain, the public prosecutor's office (Procura della Repubblica) steps in. The body is then at the disposal of the judicial authorities, and until the prosecutor agrees to release it, it can be neither buried nor flown home. At this point it is the investigators, rather than the relatives or the agency, who own the calendar. It helps a great deal if an acquaintance in Italy or a lawyer finds out the case number and the name of the official in charge: from then on, all the daily questions can be sent to one place.

Role of the Italian funeral agency

Caring for the body, collecting it from the mortuary and filing the paperwork are the job of an Italian funeral agency (impresa di onoranze funebri). It corresponds with the comune, arranges embalming and the sealing of the coffin, gathers the permits and books room in an aircraft hold. Relatives should know that nobody is obliged to accept the first agency suggested to them in a hospital corridor. It is wiser to sign a contract only after agreeing with the receiving funeral home in Georgia who covers which part of the work; otherwise it is all too easy to pay twice for the same thing.

Georgia's embassy and consulates in Italy

Georgia has an embassy in Rome and consulates general, among them in Milan and Bari. In the first days, the family or its representative should inform the mission whose district covers the place of death. The consulate confirms that the deceased was a Georgian citizen, helps with an identity document if the passport has gone missing and gives its consent for the body to be brought into Georgia. We deliberately leave out addresses and opening hours here, because they change: check them on the official page of the Georgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Prefecture permit and the consul's consent

Under Italian law, a body may be taken to a country outside the 1937 Berlin Convention only with the prefect's authorisation. Georgia has never joined that convention, so the agency hands the prefecture three main documents: the consent of the consular authority of the destination country, meaning Georgia (nulla osta); a certificate from the local health authority confirming that the coffin meets the rules; and whatever further papers the ministry asks for. In some regions these powers may have been passed to the comune, so confirm the exact procedure with the agency before anything is filed.

Italy and the Strasbourg Agreement

Families often ask us whether the 1973 Strasbourg Agreement, which governs moving the dead between countries, makes things easier. According to the Council of Europe treaty database, Italy has not joined that agreement and still works under the older 1937 Berlin Convention. Georgia belongs to neither treaty. In practice this means there is no single international "passport" for the coffin that switches on by itself, and each step, the consular consent above all, has to be worked through on its own. That explains the difference: an Italian case takes more time and more correspondence than a transfer from many neighbouring countries.

Document checklist: who issues what

Apostille and translation into Georgian

Both Italy and Georgia signed up to the 1961 Hague Convention, so an Italian official document is accepted in Georgia with an apostille and needs no consular legalisation. On civil status records the apostille is added by the prefecture, while papers signed by a notary or a court go to a different body, the public prosecutor's office. Be aware that some prefectures will not apostille a document concerning a deceased person while you wait at the counter: they ask for a written request and proof that you are related. The Italian text is then translated into Georgian and the translation notarised, which can easily be done once you are back in Tbilisi.

Embalming and the double coffin

A body leaving Italy for abroad is placed in a double coffin: inside, a hermetically sealed metal case, usually zinc; outside, a sturdy wooden coffin. The health authority oversees the process and issues a certificate that the prefecture cannot do without. Embalming prepares the body for the journey and improves the chances of an open-coffin farewell for relatives in Georgia. If the death was linked to an infectious disease, extra sanitary conditions apply and opening the coffin later may be forbidden. The agency checks this point on day one.

Counting the days until the coffin lands

In an ordinary case with no investigation, the Italian side takes anything from a few days to roughly a week. The slowest link is normally the consular consent together with the prefecture's permit, and weekends and Italian public holidays simply stop offices working. From a small town or from an island such as Sicily or Sardinia, a local transfer has to be added on top. When the prosecutor is involved, the investigation decides the pace, and it can stretch to several weeks. The agency can give a reliable forecast only once every paper is in its hands.

The flight: cargo and transit

From Italy the coffin reaches Georgia as air freight, on a direct or a connecting flight, depending on which airport has space on which day. A coffin is not passenger luggage: it travels under its own air waybill, in special packaging, and at the arrival airport the receiving funeral home takes delivery of it. A relative may fly on the same plane or a different one, though this is not required. Where there is a change of planes, the agency checks that the carrier accepts this kind of consignment and how long the coffin will stand at the intermediate airport.

Cremation in Italy and carrying the urn

Cremation is permitted by Italian law. The authorisation comes from the comune's civil registrar, based on the wishes the deceased expressed or, if there were none, on the consent of the spouse or closest relatives. The sanitary requirements that apply to a body do not apply to an urn, so this route is often cheaper and quicker, although an urn, too, travels with a cremation certificate and the death document. Before deciding, it is worth speaking to a priest, since Georgian tradition favours laying the body itself in the ground. More detail is on our Cremation page.

Paying for it: insurance, employer, state support

If the deceased held travel insurance or life cover, track down the policy number on the very first day: the insurer's assistance desk often picks the agency itself, and bringing it in late makes reimbursement harder. If your relative was formally employed, ask whether the employer or its insurer provides this kind of cover. Georgia also has a state procedure for reimbursing the cost of bringing home a citizen who died abroad: the application goes to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the consulate, and the conditions tied to family income, as well as the deadlines, are best checked in advance.

Tasks for the family in Georgia while the coffin is on its way

While the permits are being processed in Italy, the family in Tbilisi can prepare whatever does not have to wait for the coffin: the burial plot, the church service, a place for the kelekhi (the traditional memorial meal after the burial) and a plan for meeting the coffin. At Tbilisi airport the coffin is released only after customs clearance, so the receiving funeral home's broker checks the waybill and the accompanying papers beforehand. Once the days of mourning are over, the Italian extract with its apostille and certified translation is lodged with the Public Service Hall, which most Georgians call the House of Justice; on that basis it creates a Georgian record and issues a certificate. We take care of this stage as part of our death documents service.

Working with Italian colleagues, and prices

In Italy's large cities we cooperate with local agencies that have handled Georgian cases before: they know the consular consent has to be requested in good time and that originals for translation should be put aside at once. We coordinate both ends, give the family one estimate and report news every day. Full repatriation from the European Union, Italy included, starts from 5,500 GEL. If relatives or friends have already settled the Italian part, a reception at the airport plus customs formalities on its own costs from 600 GEL.

Mistakes that drag out the timeline

• an agency has been chosen, but nobody knows who is supposed to request the Georgian consul's consent;
• only one extract was taken from the comune, and it gets stuck at the apostille stage or at the consulate;
• the passport or ID card of the deceased has been lost, so confirming citizenship takes longer;
• the insurance policy turns up late, after the money has already been spent;
• the funeral date was announced before the cargo flight was confirmed.

Frequently asked questions