Reviewed by Carlos Vargas, Texas Licensed Funeral Director (TFSC #119648) ·
The consulate is in Dallas
This is the shortest journey in any of our guides. Nepal has a Consulate General in Dallas itself, and its own page on repatriation names its jurisdiction: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas and Mississippi. Not Washington, not New York, not Houston. The office is a drive away.
Its contact page gives the address as 1230 River Bend Drive, Suite 220, Dallas, TX 75247, with the telephone +1 972 803 5394 and the email info@nepalconsulatedallas.org, open Monday to Friday from 9 in the morning to 5, with consular services from 10 until half past 12. The Texas Secretary of State’s page for Nepal lists the same Dallas address, which is a useful independent check. The same Texas page also names an honorary consul in Houston and the embassy in Washington as alternates, without saying which covers what; the consulate’s own jurisdiction statement is the one to rely on.
What the consulate issues, and who asks for it
When a Nepali national dies within that jurisdiction, the consulate issues a No Objection Letter to facilitate the repatriation of the dead body or any other human remains to Nepal. Its page states the service fee as free of cost, and gives a processing time of normally three to four business days after complete and valid documentation is submitted.
Read the next part carefully, because it changes who does the running. The page asks the next of kin, family members or authorized representatives to coordinate with a licensed or registered funeral shipping company, and says that company may then approach the consulate with the documents. The complete set is submitted to the consulate through the authorized funeral shipping company, and applicants are notified by email or telephone about the status. In other words the family does not queue at the consulate; the funeral home carries the file. Choose that funeral home first.
The six items the consulate asks for
The published list is precise. It asks for originals and copies of: the passport of the person who died, which is taken for cancellation; the death certificate issued by the concerned local authority; a detailed police report in the case of an unnatural, accidental or suspicious death; the burial transit permit issued by the competent authority; and a certificate from the local health authority confirming that the person did not die of a quarantinable disease.
The sixth item is different in kind. It is an online application submitted by the next of kin through Nepal’s Department of Consular Services, or, as an alternative, an authorization letter issued by the next of kin through the concerned local government authority in Nepal. That means a relative in Nepal has a job to do in the first days, either online or at a local office there. Settle who that person is before anything else, because the file cannot be completed without them.
Two addresses for the same portal
One practical snag worth knowing before you start clicking. The Dallas consulate’s page gives the online application portal as legal.nepalconsular.gov.np, while the Embassy of Nepal in Washington’s page, which describes the same No Objection Letter process and the same free-of-cost fee, points to nepalconsular.gov.np with a longer path. Two Nepali government pages, two addresses for what appears to be one system.
We are not going to guess which is current. Ask the Dallas consulate by telephone which address to use before the relative in Nepal starts an application, because a form completed in the wrong place is time lost at the worst moment. If the portal proves difficult from Nepal, the authorization-letter route through a local government authority there is the published alternative.
Nepal is outside the apostille system
We checked the HCCH status table and Nepal has no row on it, so an apostille is not the route. As the Texas Secretary of State’s authentication page explains for countries outside the Apostille Convention, a Texas document runs from the state certificate to the Office of Authentications at the U.S. State Department and then to the country’s own mission.
In Nepal’s case the consulate’s own published list does not ask for any of that: it asks for the death certificate from the local authority and the burial transit permit, as issued here. So do not order an authentication chain you may not need. Ask the consulate directly whether anything beyond its list is required for the documents that will travel with the body, and order several certified copies of the Texas death certificate for the family’s own affairs.
Routes and what the carriers publish
There is no nonstop from Dallas/Fort Worth to Kathmandu, so every case connects. Turkish Cargo flies DFW to Istanbul and publishes a list for international funeral shipments that includes a death certificate approved by the consulate and translated into Turkish, a consular letter and the air waybill, with an autopsy report where the death was a suicide, homicide or accident; it also requires a coffin fully covered so its contents are not visible, and securely sealed. Emirates SkyCargo’s Solace document is stricter on packing: a hermetically sealed inner containment, which may be flexible material or a rigid coffin of lead or zinc, placed inside a wooden or metal outer coffin, and it states that re-used coffins are not permitted.
We could not find a Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal or Tribhuvan International Airport page setting out what happens to a body on arrival, so ask the receiving funeral home in Nepal what the airport will want. Notice that the Turkish list expects a consular letter; that is the No Objection Letter, which is why the consulate step comes before the booking.
| Step | Who to ask |
|---|---|
| Death certificate, transit permit, health letter | The funeral director here |
| Police report, if the death was not natural | The investigating agency |
| The No Objection Letter | Consulate General of Nepal in Dallas |
| The online application or authorization letter | The next of kin in Nepal |
| Coffin, routing and acceptance | The airline’s cargo department |
Who pays
The consulate’s letter is free, which removes one cost but not the main ones. We found no Nepali government statement that the state meets the cost of transport, and the department responsible for foreign employment publishes a relief and rescue contact without a published benefit we could read. Plan on the family, an insurer, an employer or a community association paying for preparation, the coffin and the flight, and read the guide to government schemes for the places worth asking.
Questions families ask about a return to Nepal
- Do I go to the consulate myself?
- No. Its own page asks the family to coordinate with a licensed or registered funeral shipping company, and says the complete set of documents is submitted to the consulate through that company. Choose the funeral home first and let it carry the file.
- What does the consulate charge?
- Nothing. Its page states the service fee as free of cost, with a processing time of normally three to four business days once the documentation is complete and valid.
- What does my relative in Nepal have to do?
- One of two things: submit the online application through Nepal's Department of Consular Services, or obtain an authorization letter through the concerned local government authority in Nepal. Agree who that relative is on the first day.
Sources checked and case confirmation
Sources checked September 21, 2026. Two Nepali government pages give different addresses for the same application portal, and no Nepali aviation or airport page on receiving a body could be found; both are stated above rather than resolved by guesswork. Confirm the documents, the portal address, the route and the receiving arrangements for the individual case. Contact Vargas–London with the district in Nepal and where your relative is now, without sending medical or identity documents through the inquiry form.
