Handling A Death Abroad

One of the facts of life is that you never know when it might end. People travel all over the world on a regular basis and hundreds of American citizens pass away while they are traveling each year. What happens when someone you love passes on while they are in another country? Here are some tips to help you from the staff at Mount Sinai Memorial Chapels, your local Jewish funeral home in Monroe, NJ.

Tip 1: Contact The US Embassy

Once you hear your loved one has passed on, contact the US Embassy in that country to get instructions from that office. Each country has unique requirements to be met in order to transfer a decedent out of the country. You can get the information you need on how to transmit funding that might be needed to cover costs overseas. You will need to get a local death certificate and copies of that, and you might need legal representation to get estate matters started in the US.

Tip 2: Decide Upon Traveling

Depending on where your loved one passed on, you might have to travel to that country to claim their body, make transporting decisions, and sign paperwork. Our funeral home can help ascertain if this travel is really necessary. The US Embassy can help you determine those needs and if you do have to travel, they can tell you where to fly in and how to get to the US Embassy once you arrive. If you have to communicate with professionals from the foreign country when you arrive, you may need a translator who can speak for you, go over documents with you, and make the process easier overall.

Tip 3: Hire A US Jewish Funeral Home

You will have to coordinate with the foreign country as well as a funeral home in the US. You might want to talk to someone who has dealt with these issues before so you have experience on your side. You also want a funeral home that can accommodate your needs on different time schedules since there could be time differences involved in the process. The Mount Sinai staff has experience in repatriating remains from all over the world, including China, Europe, South America and Israel.

Tip 4: Get Belongings Sent

You will want to make arrangements to have your loved one’s belongings sent back to you, including their clothes, accessories, passport, and anything else they were traveling with. You can have the place they were staying ship it back to you or have the US Embassy help you with the options.

Death is never easy to deal with, but when it happens overseas, it’s definitely more complicated. Get help from a Jewish funeral home in Monroe, NJ such as Mount Sinai Memorial Chapels as soon as possible will help to expeditiously handle things on this side as you deal with the bureaucracy on the other side in the other country. Call us at (732) 390-9199 24 hours a day for more information on our services. We serve East Brunswick, Edison, and the surrounding areas and we’re more than happy to help you with any situation anywhere in the world. We’re located at 454 Cranbury Rd, East Brunswick, NJ 08816 and you can check our website at www.msmc.us