Repatriation of a Body to Poland: Choose a Country

Why the country matters

Some formalities are dealt with in the country of death and depend on its rules: who issues the death certificate, who authorises the body to leave the country and what requirements apply to the coffin. The other part is the same for every country, because it comes from the Polish Act on Cemeteries and Burial of the Dead.

According to Article 14(4) of that Act, bringing a body to Poland from abroad for burial requires a permit from the starosta (district head) responsible for the place of burial, issued after consulting the district sanitary inspector, and then a certificate from the Polish consul. The same rules apply to ashes (Article 20a of the Act).

Poland is not a party to the 1973 Strasbourg Agreement on the Transfer of Corpses, so the documents from the country of death are always supplemented by a certificate from the Polish consul.