It’s the trip people save for and look forward to all year — a cruise through the Caribbean, a beach week in Mexico, a long-planned tour overseas. Almost nobody asks, before they go, the hardest what-if of all: if an American dies in another country, what happens next — and who has to make it happen?
The honest answer is that the work lands on the family, and it lands across borders: foreign authorities, foreign paperwork, and a journey home that has to cross at least one international boundary. This page walks through what that involves, what it can cost, and the plan that reduces all of it to one phone call — a plan made ahead of time, by the person who loves their family enough to think of it now.
The first problem: you’re dealing with another country
A death at home is hard enough. A death abroad adds a second government, a second set of rules, and often a second language to every step of it. Without a plan, the family back home typically has to work through:
- The local authorities where the death occurred — the death is registered there, under that country’s laws, before anything can move.
- A funeral home in a foreign city — a licensed sending funeral home or mortuary that can take your loved one into its care and prepare them for the journey. Most families know no one there and are choosing under pressure, by phone, from thousands of miles away.
- A foreign death certificate — issued where the death occurred, often in another language, with certified copies needed before insurers, banks, and estates back home can act.
- Consular services and customs documentation — a return across a border involves consular paperwork and customs requirements in both countries, and every document has to be in order before transport can proceed.
A US consulate or embassy can help a family with notifications and guidance on local paperwork — but it does not pay to bring a loved one home. Without a plan made in advance, the arrangements and the costs are the family’s own, handled from a distance, often across time zones, in the worst week of their lives.
If it happens on a cruise
A cruise adds one more layer: the death is handled under the laws of the port where the ship arrives. That means the formal process — the authorities, the death certificate, the sending funeral home — takes place in a foreign port city, which may not even be a country the passenger ever planned to visit.
The family’s part starts from there: a funeral home in that port, the paperwork of that country, and transport home that begins in a place they may have to look up on a map. It is the same problem as any death abroad, with the added disorientation of a port chosen by an itinerary rather than by the family. Travelers who love cruising can read more on our Cruise-Goers page, and anyone whose passport is always ready belongs on our Passport Holders page.
What it costs
Bringing a loved one home from another country can cost more than $40,000, according to Return Assured’s own published materials — compared with up to $11,000 for a return within the United States. International returns cost more because everything in the first section of this page is in the bill: the foreign funeral home, the preparation, the documentation in two countries, and long-distance air transport.
And as with a death across state lines, the money is only half of it. The other half is the figuring-out, done under pressure, in an unfamiliar system. Our guide to what it costs to transport a loved one home breaks the domestic picture down in more detail.
The plan that makes it one call
Return Assured℠ membership exists for exactly this situation. It is not insurance — it is a lifetime membership, one payment of $350, once, for life, with benefits provided through APASI, which has provided travel assurance since 1994.
Coverage is worldwide. If a member passes away more than 75 miles from their legal residence — the place they have lived for 180 or more days in the 12 months before death — one call to APASI at the time of death sets everything in motion. For a death overseas, the benefits named in the plan documents include locating a licensed sending funeral home or mortuary, transporting your loved one from the site of death to it, preparing the remains for either burial or cremation, transport home, and procuring the consular services and death certificates — and APASI manages all customs documentation or diplomatic issues involved, anywhere in the world. For covered repatriation there are no caps on expense and no out-of-pocket costs for the family.
Two conditions matter, stated plainly: APASI must be contacted at the time of death — by the family or anyone acting on the member’s behalf — or benefits cannot be provided, and services a family arranges on its own cannot be reimbursed, because all services must be provided through APASI. Members receive a certificate and two wallet ID cards, and the membership can be cancelled within 30 days of signing for a full refund.
Enrollment starts with the pre-enrollment form — no payment is accepted on this website. After you submit it, we will contact you to confirm your details, have the application signed, and collect the one-time $350 fee. Start on the pre-enrollment page, and see our FAQ page for more.
A death abroad asks a family to solve a foreign bureaucracy at the exact moment they are least able to. The travelers who spare them that are the ones who made one decision before the trip — while everything was fine, and there was still time to make it well.
Travel for you. Plan for them.
Common questions
Does the US embassy pay to bring someone home if they die abroad?
No. A US consulate or embassy can help a family with notifications and guidance on local paperwork, but it does not pay for preparing or transporting a loved one’s remains home. Without a plan made in advance, those costs — which can exceed $40,000 from another country — fall on the family.
Does a cruise line handle everything if a passenger dies?
Not everything. The death is handled under the laws of the port where the ship arrives, and the formal process — local authorities, a sending funeral home in that port, that country’s death certificate — takes place there. The arrangements and costs of bringing a loved one home from that port remain the family’s responsibility unless a plan was made beforehand.
What should the family do first if a member dies overseas?
Call APASI at the time of death. That one call — made by a family member or anyone acting on the member’s behalf — activates the membership’s benefits, and APASI must provide the services for benefits to apply, so arrangements made before the call cannot be reimbursed. The number is on the member’s wallet ID cards, which is why the cards matter: whoever gets the first call knows the one number to call first.