Repatriation: when sending a loved one home goes wrong

When something breaks in that chain, the body arrives days late, arrives in poor condition, sits in a warehouse over a paperwork error, never arrives, or another person's body arrives instead. This page explains what Florida law requires of the funeral home that ships your loved one, and what your family can do.

Call (305) 209-0384 Read the questions first ↓

Read the questions first

• The body arrived late and in poor condition. Who is responsible?
• The funeral home blames the consulate or the airline.
• My family is in the other country. Can you help us?

How an international shipment usually works

Usually the Florida funeral home picks up the body, prepares it, handles the death certificate and burial-transit permit, gathers the documents the destination country requires (often through its consulate), books the shipment with an airline, and coordinates with a receiving funeral home abroad. Requirements vary by country and airline.

What Florida law requires on this side of the trip

• Identification from the start. The licensee that removes the body must make sure it is identified by a tag or other means on the ankle or wrist when it leaves the place of death (§ 497.171(1)(d), Fla. Stat.).
• Refrigeration or preservation. A body may not be held in any place or in transit for more than 24 hours after death, or pending final disposition, unless it is refrigerated at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or below, or embalmed or otherwise preserved in an approved manner (§ 497.386(2)).
• A proper container. A body transported by common carrier or by anyone authorized to carry bodies must be in a container adequate to prevent the seepage of fluids and escape of odors (§ 497.386(3)).
• The transit permit. A body may be transported only with a properly completed burial-transit permit (§ 497.386(3)). The funeral director who first takes custody must obtain it before final disposition and within 5 days after death, and when the body leaves the state, the permit travels with it to its destination (§ 382.006(1), (3)).
• Dignity and respect. All human remains transported or stored must be "completely covered and at all times treated with dignity and respect" (§ 497.386(4)).
• Permission to embalm. Embalming requires permission from the legally authorized person (§ 497.152(8)(d)).
• Honoring the contract on time. Failing without reasonable justification to timely honor a contract for funeral services is grounds for discipline (§ 497.152(13)(a)).

What the law may provide

Florida lets any person bring a civil action against a licensee that violates Chapter 497, for actual damages and other relief (§ 497.169(1)). Depending on the facts, a family may also have claims for breach of the shipping contract or negligence. Your family's emotional harm matters. The Florida Supreme Court is now considering when Florida law allows recovery for emotional harm without a physical injury, and we will explain how the law stands for your situation.

If the problem happened while an airline or another company had the body, tell us at the start: we look at every link in the chain. Our work focuses on the Florida side, which is one more reason to ask early.

What to keep

• The shipping contract and invoice.
• The air waybill, flight numbers, and dates.
• Copies of the consular documents, apostilles, embalming certificate, and transit permit.
• The receiving funeral home's papers and photos, and the name of the person who received the body.
• Every message, including WhatsApp, with the funeral home here and the one abroad.
• A dated timeline: death, pickup, departure, arrival, and every delay you were told about.

The deadline

Two years. Florida law gives a negligence claim two years (§ 95.11(5)(a)). Some claims may carry a longer period, but no family should bet on that. We treat two years from the day it happened as the deadline in every case, and you should too. If you only just found out, call anyway: when the clock started is a question we answer case by case.

What to do first

If the body is held up right now, ask the funeral home in writing for the shipment status and a copy of every document, and keep the answer. If it has arrived, gather the papers from here and abroad. Before you sign anything or accept a refund, talk with a lawyer. See What to do right now.

Questions families ask

The body arrived late and in poor condition. Who is responsible?

It depends on where the chain broke. It may be the Florida funeral home, the airline, an intermediary, or several at once. We follow the body step by step, with dates and documents, to learn who had it when things went wrong.

The funeral home blames the consulate or the airline.

That may be true, or it may not. Usually, the funeral home you hired handles the paperwork and prepares the body. Ask for its explanation and the documents in writing, and do not settle for a verbal answer.

My family is in the other country. Can you help us?

Yes. We work in Spanish and can speak with your relatives abroad by phone or WhatsApp. Photos and papers they have there can be important evidence.

Talk to Dennis

We are a bilingual Miami office that understands what it means to send a loved one home. When you are ready, call or send a WhatsApp message. The office answers 24 hours.

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You can read about some of our past cases on our Results page.

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