Reviewed by Carlos Vargas, Texas Licensed Funeral Director (TFSC #119648) ·
No Congolese office in Texas, and the directory settles it
Several of these guides open by naming the consulate that covers Dallas. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has none to name, and that is checkable, not assumed. The Texas Secretary of State publishes a directory of consular offices in Texas; its country entries number a hundred, with no Congo among them. Two of its neighbours, Angola and Zambia, are on that same list, which is how we know the directory reaches that region.
So the file goes to Washington. The Embassy of the Democratic Republic of the Congo publishes its address: 1100 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Suite 725, Washington, D.C. 20036.
One caution about its hours. The embassy publishes drop-off from Monday to Thursday, ten until three, Friday ten until one, and collection on Tuesday and Thursday, two until half past three. Every one of those lines is labelled visa application. Nothing says the permit below is issued inside those windows, and we will not assume it. Ask when you telephone.
The permit has a name, and six lettered requirements
Most destinations leave you to work out what they want. The Congolese embassy writes it down under a heading of its own: permit for corpse transportation. Better still, it is written for this exact journey. The page says the embassy requires the list fulfilled in order for the consulate to authorise the remains of a Congolese national who has died in the United States to be repatriated to the DRC. That is the Dallas direction, stated by the destination itself.
Six lettered items follow. Proof that the deceased was a Congolese citizen, by passport copy or birth certificate. A certified copy of the death certificate. A letter from a local health authority certifying the deceased did not die of a contagious disease. A metal hermetically sealable casket. A letter stating how the body was embalmed, which the page says is typically signed by the director of a funeral home. And a self-addressed prepaid A4 envelope for the return of your documents, on a service with tracking such as FedEx or UPS.
That last item carries an exclusion in the embassy's own parenthesis: USPS, metered stamps and regular mail are not acceptable. It is the kind of small thing that sends a file back to the beginning.
| Item | Who it comes from |
|---|---|
| Proof of Congolese citizenship, by passport or birth certificate | The family |
| Certified copy of the death certificate | Texas records |
| Letter that the death was not from a contagious disease | A local health authority |
| A metal hermetically sealable casket | Your funeral home |
| Letter stating how the body was embalmed | Your funeral home |
| Prepaid A4 return envelope on a tracked service | The family |
The fee depends on whether the passport was valid
The same page prints two prices, and which one applies turns on a document. The permit costs a hundred and fifty dollars where the deceased did not hold a valid Congolese passport and a tenant-lieu, a stand-in travel document, has to be created. Where the passport was valid, the permit is a hundred dollars.
No other destination in these guides keys a mortuary fee to the status of a passport. Find the passport before you call: that one fact decides the figure, and whether a second document has to be made first.
On how to pay, the embassy publishes two rules that do not match each other. The legalization page says payment is accepted only by money order, certified check or company-issued check, payable in US dollars to the embassy at the Connecticut Avenue address. The separate fee page says all payments must be made by blank money order only. We are quoting both rather than choosing between them. Ask which one governs this permit when you telephone.
There is no apostille road, and the embassy does not ask for one
A Texas family's first question is usually whether an apostille will do. For the DRC the answer is that the apostille system does not reach it. The HCCH keeps the list of states party to the Apostille Convention and the Congo does not appear on it. Liberia, Senegal, Rwanda and Burundi all do, in the same copy we searched, which is how we know the search was working.
Here is the part that surprised us. Being outside the apostille system usually means a longer road instead: authentication in the state, then the federal department, then legalization at the embassy. The Congolese list does not ask for that road. Its second item asks for a certified copy of the death certificate and stops there. No item on the page mentions an apostille, an authentication, or a legalization of that certificate.
We are not going to fill that in. Texas will authenticate a document and charges fifteen dollars to do it, expressly per document rather than per page, worth knowing if the embassy asks on the telephone. But the published list does not ask, and this page reports what is published.
What Kinshasa publishes runs the other way
There is a second official source, and reading it carefully matters more than quoting it. The United States Mission in Kinshasa publishes a disposition of remains report for the DRC, five pages and thorough, with a document chain, a casket specification and a cost estimate.
Every line of it describes remains leaving the DRC for the United States. That is the opposite journey from the one this page is about, and we are not reversing it, because a reversed list is a guess with a citation attached. It also carries June 2019 on every page, so it is seven years old. What no source we read publishes is the arrival side: who clears remains into the country, what a receiving funeral home must produce there, or whether any domestic permit applies. That gap is stated, not filled.
One thing on that same mission page does bear on a family now. It carries a notice that, because of an increase in violence throughout the city of Kinshasa, the embassy is closed to the public, and is advising United States citizens to shelter in place and then depart while commercial options remain. If your plan assumed someone could walk into that building, it needs rechecking.
Questions families ask about a return to the DRC
- Is there a Congolese consulate in Texas?
- No. The Texas Secretary of State directory of consular offices lists a hundred countries and the Democratic Republic of the Congo is not one of them. The file goes to the embassy in Washington.
- What does the permit cost?
- A hundred and fifty dollars where the deceased held no valid Congolese passport, because a tenant-lieu has to be created, and a hundred dollars where the passport was valid.
- Does a Texas apostille work for the DRC?
- The DRC is not party to the Apostille Convention. The embassy list asks for a certified copy of the death certificate and does not mention an apostille or any authentication.
Sources checked and case confirmation
Sources checked September 22, 2026 on the Texas Secretary of State directory of consular offices in Texas; the Congolese embassy pages on legalization of documents and on consular fees, and its published address and hours; the HCCH status table for the Apostille Convention; the Texas Secretary of State pages on authentication and on requesting a universal apostille; and the United States Mission in Kinshasa services page and its disposition of remains report. What this page deliberately does not claim: what the DRC requires on arrival, because no source we read states it; that the permit is issued inside the published visa hours, because the page does not say so; that any authentication is needed beyond the certified copy the embassy list asks for; and which of the two published payment rules governs this permit. The Kinshasa report and the embassy site name individuals; none is reproduced here. Contact Vargas-London with the province in the DRC and where your relative is now, without sending medical or identity documents through the inquiry form.
