Issuing authority and document: Latvia and Moldova are both parties to the Strasbourg Agreement. Under Latvian Cabinet Regulation No. 523, taking a body out of Latvia requires a transport permit issued by the Health Inspectorate (Veselības inspekcija). We confirm the current office and documents for each case.
Transport: By air or by road. The mode of transport and the handover point in Moldova are agreed with the family case by case, depending on the city, the documents and the route.
Timing: We confirm the timeline once we have the documents. It depends on the local authorities, the Moldovan consulate where it is involved, and the transport available.
Price: Body (repatriation of remains): from 2 000 €
Ashes (urn): from 800 €

Country status under the 1973 Strasbourg Agreement on the Transfer of Corpses: per the Council of Europe list (archived 20.05.2014) and the Netherlands treaty database; checked 11.10.2026.

Procedure

Both Latvia and Moldova are parties to the 1973 Strasbourg Agreement; for Latvia it entered into force on 6 January 1997. The body therefore travels with a laissez-passer issued in Latvia, and the country of destination may not ask for other documents beyond the laissez-passer and the usual transport documents.

Latvian Cabinet Regulation No. 523 of 19 July 2005 (the version of 10 June 2020, as shown on the likumi.lv portal) provides that taking a body out of Latvia requires a transport permit from the Health Inspectorate, and that the permit is not issued if the requirements for documents and the coffin are not met. The funeral service in Latvia prepares the coffin and the certificates, and we coordinate the rest.

Required documents

Under the regulation, the application for the permit comes with: a written application; a certificate from a medical institution on the cause of death with its ICD-10 code (or a death certificate with the same information); and a certificate from the funeral service that the body is in a coffin meeting the requirements and that the coffin holds only the body and items buried or cremated with it. In addition, as a rule: the identity document of the deceased and the documents of the person applying. Latvia is a party to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention, and a list of the Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (last updated in 2017) places it among the states whose documents are accepted without an apostille. The list is old, so we check each document.

Specifics

The regulation requires a hermetically sealed coffin lined with absorbent material, with the thickness of the wood depending on the zinc lining. Moldova has an embassy in Riga. The Latvian regulation does not cover the transport of ashes; for an urn the rules differ from those for a body, and the Strasbourg Agreement does not apply to ashes. We confirm the documents for an urn case by case.

Frequently asked questions

Who issues the permit to take a body out of Latvia?

Under Cabinet Regulation No. 523, the Health Inspectorate (Veselības inspekcija) issues the transport permit. The version we read is dated 10 June 2020, so we confirm the current office for each case.

What are the coffin requirements in Latvia?

The regulation requires a hermetically sealed coffin lined with absorbent material, and the permit is not issued if the coffin requirements are not met. The funeral service in Latvia prepares it and confirms in writing that it holds only the body and items buried with it.

Is there a Moldovan embassy in Latvia?

Yes, in Riga. We handle contact with the embassy and prepare the documents for the consulate together with you.

Can we bring home the ashes from Latvia?

Yes. The Latvian regulation does not cover the transport of ashes, and the Strasbourg Agreement does not apply to ashes. For an urn the rules differ from those for a body; we confirm the documents once we know the Latvian city.

Other countries

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Repatriation from Latvia to Moldova