LAISSEZ PASSER FOR A CORPSE

Laissez Passer For A Corpse and shipment of urns to Austria

Transport of corpses and urns

Under Austrian law corpses and urns (containing the ashes of a deceased person after cremation) may only be transported by licensed /authorized funeral enterprises. 

Corpses and urns can only be send from funeral enterprises abroad to a private or public funeral home (mortuary) in Austria (e.g. by air transport /air cargo). Under no circumstances must corpses or urns be addressed to relatives of the deceased or any other private parties.

The shipper (funeral home) has to utilize a durable, air and waterproof container/urn. This container/urn has to bear the first and family name(s), the date of birth, the day of death as well as the date and place of cremation (name and address of the funeral home). This information must not be easily removable.

In order to avoid difficulties or delays at the border, it has in the past proven to be helpful to attach an (informal) letter by the shipper which indicates the exact contents of such a shipment. No additional documents issued by Austrian Consulates/theEmbassy are required.

Austrian Consulates and Embassies cannot ship urns with their diplomatic mail.

For the shipment of corpses in coffins:

please download the form below, which gives detailed information for the international transport of the dead.