When Someone Dies in Another State: How to Bring Them Home
The short answer: call a funeral home in your home town first, the one that will hold the funeral, not one near where the death happened. They will arrange for a funeral home in the other state to collect the body, prepare it and send it, and they will receive it at this end. Your home funeral home is the one you deal with; the other one works for them. The body usually travels by air as cargo, or by road if the distance is a day's drive or less. The death certificate is filed in the state where the death happened, and a permit travels with the body. Under the FTC's Funeral Rule, both funeral homes have to give you itemized prices, including separate prices for "forwarding" and "receiving" remains, so you can compare before you agree to anything.
If the person died outside the United States, the process is different and runs through the embassy; see when someone dies abroad. If you are just starting and do not know what comes first, what to do when someone dies covers the first day.
Who Calls Whom
A death away from home usually happens in one of three places, and each has a different first contact:
- In a hospital or hospice. Staff will ask which funeral home to release the body to. You can give them the name of your home-town funeral home; it will arrange the local pickup.
- At a residence, hotel or on the road. Police or the medical examiner usually come first. The body may go to the medical examiner's office, and nothing moves until it is released. What families should know about an autopsy explains how that works.
- In a nursing home or care facility. The facility will call the funeral home listed in its records. If that list is out of date, tell them right away. When a nursing home resident dies covers the first hours there.
You do not need to travel to the other state to make any of this happen. Most of it is done by phone and email between the two funeral homes.
Two Funeral Homes, One Contract
Moving a body between states almost always involves two funeral homes:
- The sending funeral home, near where the death happened. It collects the body, gets the local paperwork, prepares the body for travel, and takes it to the airport or drives it.
- The receiving funeral home, at home. It meets the body, takes it into its care, and handles the funeral, burial or cremation.
Usually the receiving funeral home chooses and pays the sending one, then bills you for the whole thing. That is the simplest arrangement, and it means one person to call. Ask them to put the sending home's charges on your statement as a separate line, so you can see what each part cost.
The FTC's Funeral Rule requires funeral homes to list a price for "forwarding of remains to another funeral home" and "receiving remains from another funeral home," and to describe what each price includes. Ask both homes for their General Price List. Those two lines are where you will see whether embalming, a shipping container or airport transfer are already included or will be added on top.
Flying or Driving
By air. This is the usual choice for long distances. The body travels as cargo, not with the passengers, in a casket or an air tray, a sturdy shipping container. Airlines only accept human remains from shippers registered with them under the TSA's "known shipper" rules, which in practice means a funeral home. A family cannot simply book the body on a flight. The flight is often a day or two after the death, once the paperwork is done; direct flights are worth paying for, because every connection is another chance for delay.
By road. For a few hundred miles, many funeral homes will send a vehicle and a driver. It costs per mile, and can be cheaper than a flight once you add the airport transfers at each end. Ask both options.
Driving the body yourself. In most states, a family can transport the body in their own vehicle with the right permit. The Funeral Consumers Alliance names nine states that require a funeral director for some steps, and you have to satisfy both states. It is legal for many families, but it is a long, hard drive with someone you love in the back of the car. Home funeral explains what doing it yourself involves.
Embalming
Embalming is often presented as required for shipping. Under federal law it usually is not. The FTC's required price-list wording is "Except in certain special cases, embalming is not required by law." Some airlines or states do require it, or require refrigeration instead, when a body travels a long way or for longer than a set number of hours.
Ask the sending funeral home directly: "Is embalming required for this trip, by the airline or by either state, or is it your recommendation?" If it is a recommendation and you will have a closed casket or a cremation at home, you can usually decline.
The Paperwork
You will not have to do most of this yourself, but it helps to know what the funeral homes are waiting for:
- The death certificate is filed in the state where the person died, not their home state. Order certified copies from that state; you will need them for banks, insurers and Social Security. If you later find an error on it, the correction also goes through that state; see mistakes on a death certificate.
- A burial-transit permit, or the local equivalent, is issued once the death certificate is filed. It travels with the body and is handed over at the cemetery or crematory at the other end.
- A medical examiner's release, if the death was being investigated.
The usual cause of delay is the doctor's signature on the medical part of the death certificate. If the person died suddenly and their own doctor is in another state, the funeral home may have to wait for the medical examiner. Ask once a day who the certificate is waiting on; a polite call often moves it along.
If Cremation Is the Plan
There is a cheaper route if the person will be cremated: cremate them in the state where they died and bring the ashes home. That removes the shipping, the air tray and often the embalming. The memorial service can still be held at home with the urn.
The trade-off is that relatives at home will not have a chance to see the body. If a viewing matters to your family, ship the body and cremate at home. If it does not, cremating where they died is a reasonable choice and not a lesser one.
Ashes can then come home three ways:
- Carried on a flight by a family member. Most airlines allow them in cabin baggage, in a container that can be X-rayed. Keep the cremation certificate with you, and check with the airline before you go.
- Mailed. The US Postal Service is the only carrier that delivers cremated remains to a home address. It has a specific service and packaging for this.
- Driven home by family or the funeral home.
What to do with ashes covers what comes next.
Keeping the Cost Down
Transporting a body between states adds real cost to a funeral. To keep it under control:
- Get both General Price Lists before you agree. You are allowed to buy only what you need.
- Ask whether a direct cremation where they died, with a service at home, would work for your family. It is usually the cheapest option.
- Ask about the deceased's own benefits. Veterans may be entitled to transport costs in certain circumstances; see veteran burial benefits. Some employers, unions and travel insurers also pay for transport.
- If a funeral home's bill has items you did not agree to, what to do if a funeral home overcharged you explains how to push back.
If the cost is out of reach entirely, when you cannot afford a funeral lists what help actually exists.
Common Questions
Do I need to go to the other state? Usually not. The two funeral homes can handle it by phone and email, and documents can often be signed electronically. Go only if you want to, or if the medical examiner or police ask to speak to you in person.
How long does it take? Often two to five days from the death to arrival at home, longer if the death is investigated or the death certificate is delayed. Hold off on fixing the funeral date until the funeral home confirms the flight.
Can the body travel on the same flight as the family? Sometimes, if the funeral home books it that way. Ask; some families find it a comfort.
Who pays? Usually the family or the person's estate, unless an employer, insurer or veterans' benefit covers it.
Bringing someone home is one way of looking after them. Telling their story is another. GetMemorial gives your family a permanent place for photos, stories and tributes that people in every state can visit. Start an online memorial whenever you are ready.
