Returning a loved one to South Asia: how the countries compare

Six countries, and for one of them the office does not exist

For a family in North Texas the first practical question is how far away the office is, and in South Asia the answer swings further than anywhere else in these guides. One of these six countries has a consulate in Dallas itself. Two work from Houston. Two are handled from Washington, fifteen hundred miles away, by post and email. And for the sixth there is no office in the United States at all. That distance sets the pace of everything else, because a document that has to travel twice takes a week that a family does not feel it has. This page compares the six, then sends you to the guide for your own country.

Where the office is

Nepal is the outlier, and in the family’s favour. Its Consulate General in Dallas states its own jurisdiction over Texas and seven neighbouring states. India and Pakistan both work from Houston: India’s consulate there handles attestation of death documents and the carrying of mortal remains, and Pakistan’s Houston consulate publishes a jurisdiction that includes Texas.

Afghanistan is the one with nowhere to go: the Texas directory carries a hundred and one country entries and Afghanistan is not among them, while Pakistan, Nepal, India and Sri Lanka all are, which is how we know the directory reaches this region. The obvious next move, the federal roster, no longer exists — the State Department's Office of the Chief of Protocol says on its own page that it has stopped publishing the Diplomatic List. The domain a family would actually type turns out to be a blog carrying posts on online slot games, and this page does not link it. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are both handled from Washington. Sri Lanka’s Houston honorary consul post is recorded as vacant on the Texas list, and Bangladesh’s New York consulate states that all states outside its own eight are serviced by the consular section of the embassy in Washington. Neither of those two has any office in Texas.

What each office actually issues

The documents differ more than the distances. Nepal’s consulate issues a No Objection Letter, free of cost, normally in three to four business days, and asks that the funeral shipping company rather than the family bring the file in. Pakistan’s Houston consulate publishes a checklist for the transportation of a deceased person. Sri Lanka’s embassy requires a written request for permission to transport and land remains, and publishes the coffin standard it will accept.

Afghanistan publishes a commitment and no route: the Kabul ministry lists facilitating the repatriation of deceased Afghan nationals as a consular function, and names no office in the United States, no address, no telephone, no form and no fee. Bangladesh is the gap. The embassy that covers Texas has a page titled Dead Body Repatriation, and the page is an empty template with no requirements on it at all. For that one country the first step is not reading a list but asking for one in writing. That is a difference in publication rather than in law, and it is exactly the kind of thing worth knowing before a family starts gathering papers.

India is the one with an online clearance

India still does something none of the other five do. Alongside the consular attestation, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare runs eCARe, an online system for clearance of human remains arriving in India, with its own published FAQ for consignees. A family and a funeral home deal with a portal and a reference rather than only with paper travelling by post.

That changes the questions to ask. Find out who will file in the portal, what reference the airline will need, and who at the Indian end is named as the consignee, because the portal expects a real person to receive. None of the other four countries in this group publishes anything comparable, and their files move at the speed of the post.

The apostille splits them three to three

Read on the HCCH status table on September 21, 2026: India has been a party since July 14, 2005, Pakistan since March 9, 2023 and Bangladesh only since March 30, 2025. For those three a certificate from the Texas Secretary of State is the normal way to finish a Texas document. Bangladesh’s entry is recent enough that older advice about it is simply wrong, so check the date on anything else you read.

Nepal, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have no row on that table. Afghanistan's guide records the same search with Pakistan, India and Mexico found in the copy it read, so the absence is measured rather than assumed, and for it the chain has no third counter at all: the usual last step is the destination's own embassy, and there is none in this country. For them, as the Texas authentication page explains for countries outside the Convention, the chain runs through the Office of Authentications at the U.S. State Department. One caution that applies to all five: a country joining the Convention does not mean its consulate has changed what it asks for. Ask the office, in writing, which form of authentication it wants.

What they publish about money

Three of the six publish something. Sri Lanka’s Bureau of Foreign Employment states in its death flow chart that it provides financial assistance of 100,000 rupees for funeral expenses and religious rites once the documentation is complete. Pakistan’s Overseas Pakistanis Foundation publishes a funeral grant of 25,000 rupees, conditioned on membership or registration, with the claim made within one month after burial in Pakistan. India has a community welfare fund that may pay for transporting remains, decided case by case on means.

Every one of those is for people who went abroad to work and registered before leaving, so a relative who emigrated and settled here will often fall outside them. Nepal and Bangladesh publish nothing we could read on the question. The guide to government schemes sets out the four conditions these programmes share.

Questions families ask about a return to South Asia

Which of these has an office near Dallas?

Nepal has a Consulate General in Dallas itself, covering Texas and seven neighbouring states. India and Pakistan work from Houston. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are handled from the embassy in Washington, with no office in Texas. Afghanistan has no office anywhere in the United States.

Does a Texas apostille work?

For India since 2005, Pakistan since 2023 and Bangladesh since March 2025. Nepal, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have no row on the HCCH table, so their documents follow the longer chain through the U.S. Office of Authentications.

Will any of these governments help with the cost?

Sri Lanka's foreign employment bureau publishes 100,000 rupees for funeral expenses, and Pakistan's OPF a 25,000 rupee funeral grant, both for registered overseas workers. India has a means-tested welfare fund. Nepal and Bangladesh publish nothing readable on it.

Sources checked and case confirmation

Sources checked September 23, 2026. This page compares what our six South Asian guides report; each guide carries its own sources and check date, and consular lists change without notice. Confirm the office, the documents, the form of authentication, the route and the receiving arrangements for the individual case. Contact Vargas–London with the country and the district, and where your relative is now, without sending medical or identity documents through the inquiry form.