Issuing authority and document: The rules for taking a body out of the country are set by the province; in Ontario, for example, a certificate approved by the coroner is needed. The Polish certificate is issued by the Polish consulate in Canada.
Transport: By plane, as air cargo. We agree the arrival airport and the handover place in Poland with the family.
Timing: We confirm the timing once we have the documents. The Polish Act provides that the starosta (district head) and the consul issue their documents at the latest within 3 days of the application (Article 14(5) of the Act on Cemeteries and Burial of the Dead); in practice time is also needed for the sanepid's opinion and delivering the originals, and the time needed to deal with matters in the country of death depends on the authorities there.
Price: We will quote the price once we know the details.

The procedure in Canada

Canada is not a party to the Strasbourg Agreement on the Transfer of Corpses. In Ontario, taking a body out of the province requires a certificate approved by the coroner (Certificate for Shipment of a Body Outside of Ontario), which the funeral home applies for. We check the rules of other provinces in your case.

Canada: four posts divided by province

Poland's posts in Canada are the embassy in Ottawa and consulates general in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Montreal covers Quebec and the Atlantic provinces, Toronto covers Ontario, Manitoba and Nunavut, and Vancouver covers British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories with Yukon. The embassy serves Ottawa and nearby Ontario counties. A visit is booked through the e-konsulat system.

The death certificate needs no Polish translation. Forms 15 and 16 must carry an apostille; Canada joined the Hague Convention on 11 January 2024. For ashes in Montreal the consulate lists a burial permit, a copie d'acte de décès, a medical death certificate (SP-3 or bulletin de décès), a certificate of cremation and a certificate of contents. We make sure the set fits the right post.

Documents for the Polish consulate

For a body, the Polish consulate in Toronto lists, among others: the death forms (Form 15 and Form 16) with an apostille, a certificate of no infectious disease, the certificate for taking the body out of Ontario, a burial permit, a certificate of embalming and packaging, and the deceased's Polish passport, if there was one. For ashes: the death forms with an apostille, the cremation certificate and a statement from the funeral home.

On the Polish side two documents are always needed: a permit from the starosta (district head) responsible for the place of burial, and then a certificate from the Polish consul, issued on the basis of that permit and the death certificate (Article 14(4) of the Act on Cemeteries and Burial of the Dead). The same documents are needed for an urn with ashes.

Frequently asked questions

Do documents from Canada need an apostille?

According to the Polish consulate in Toronto, the death forms (Form 15 and Form 16) must have an apostille.

How much does it cost to bring a body from Canada to Poland?

The price depends on the city, the documents, the type of transport and whether we are transporting a body or an urn. We will give you a price once we know the details.

How long does it take to bring a body home from Canada?

We confirm the timing once we have the documents. The Act provides that the starosta and the consul issue their documents at the latest within 3 days of the application (Article 14(5) of the Act on Cemeteries and Burial of the Dead); in practice time is also needed for the sanepid's opinion, delivering the originals, formalities in the country of death and the transport itself.

Other countries

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Repatriation of a Body from Canada to Poland