Reviewed by Carlos Vargas, Texas Licensed Funeral Director (TFSC #119648) ·
No Syrian office in Texas, and no domain that answers
The Texas Secretary of State directory of consular offices lists a hundred and one countries. Syria is not among them. Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq are, and so are Egypt, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, which is how we know the directory reaches this region and Syria's immediate neighbours in particular.
Nor is there a Syrian consular website in the United States that we could reach. The domain a family is likeliest to try does not resolve at all, and a second one we had noted earlier did not resolve either. That is a DNS failure in both cases, not a slow page.
So the first practical thing to understand is that there is no Syrian office in this country to telephone, and this page does not pretend otherwise.
The apostille does not reach Syria, and the road after it stops
The HCCH status table for the Apostille Convention has no Syria row. Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Saudi Arabia all appear in the copy we searched, which is how we know the search was working.
Texas states what applies instead: for a country outside the Convention you need additional authentication from the Office of Authentications at the United States State Department, on top of the Texas certificate. The customary stage after that is legalisation at the destination country's own embassy, and for Syria there is no such office here to perform it.
We are not filling that in with a plausible substitute. What is real is the Texas end: the Secretary of State charges fifteen dollars per document, expressly per document and not per page, up to ten documents in one transaction, and its list of recordable documents names Burial Transit Forms.
Two Syrian sources load, and neither mentions a death
Unlike some destinations in this set, Syria has official sources that work. The ministry of foreign affairs and expatriates loads, in Arabic, and so does the Syrian permanent mission to the United Nations, in English. Both publish consular material: the Arabic word for consul appears on the ministry site, and the English word appears on the mission site.
Neither mentions a death. We searched both on September 23, 2026 for death, deceased, remains, funeral and repatriation in English, and for the Arabic terms for death, funeral, body and remains. The count was zero on both.
The control words are what make that zero mean something: they were found in the same pass, in the same languages, on the same pages. The instrument reached the text. The subject simply is not addressed.
The American embassy for Syria answers in two other countries
When a destination is silent these guides fall back on the United States mission there, so read that mission's own contact block carefully. The United States Embassy in Syria states it in its own words: effective February 6, 2012, the embassy has suspended operations and is not open for normal consular services, and neither United States passports nor visas will be issued in Damascus.
Three details in the same block say where things actually happen. The telephone number it publishes begins +962, which is Jordan. Its emergency contact for citizens is an address at Amman, in Jordan. And the email address it lists sits on the domain embassy.mzv.cz, which belongs to the Czech foreign ministry. We are reporting the country code and the domain, because those are documentary; we are not characterising the arrangement behind them.
| Item | What it says |
|---|---|
| Consular operations in Damascus | Suspended effective February 6, 2012; no United States passports or visas issued there |
| The telephone number | Begins +962, which is Jordan |
| Emergency contact for citizens | An address at Amman |
| The email address it lists | On embassy.mzv.cz, the Czech foreign ministry domain |
| Travel advisory | Level 4, Do Not Travel |
Its citizen services text is the standard one, about a United States citizen who dies in Syria and the arrangements for local burial or returning remains to America. That is the opposite journey from this page and none of it is turned around here.
What a Dallas family can still do
Two things can be started today and neither depends on anyone answering a telephone. Obtain the Texas death certificate and have the Secretary of State authenticate it, because every onward step will be built on that document. Then ask your carrier, in writing, what it requires for a Syrian destination, since the carrier is the party that will actually accept or refuse the shipment.
What nobody publishes is the rest: which Syrian authority receives remains, what a receiving funeral director must present, whether any permit or fee applies, and where a document could be legalised with no Syrian consular office reachable in the United States. That gap is stated here, not filled, and it is why this page promises a family less than most of the others.
Questions families ask about a return to Syria
- Is there a Syrian consulate in Texas?
- No. The Texas Secretary of State directory lists a hundred and one countries and Syria is not among them, although Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq are. The Syrian mission domains we tried in the United States do not resolve.
- Does a Texas apostille work for Syria?
- No. Syria has no row on the Apostille Convention status table. Texas directs non-Convention documents to the Office of Authentications at the United States State Department, and the customary stage after that has no office here for Syria.
- Where does the American embassy for Syria answer?
- It states that operations in Damascus have been suspended since February 6, 2012. The telephone number it publishes begins +962, which is Jordan, and the email address it lists is on the Czech foreign ministry domain.
Sources checked and case confirmation
Sources checked September 23, 2026: the Texas Secretary of State consular directory and its pages on authentication and on requesting a universal apostille; the HCCH status table for the Apostille Convention; the Syrian ministry of foreign affairs and expatriates; the Syrian permanent mission to the United Nations; and the United States Embassy in Syria home page and its American citizen services page. What this page deliberately does not claim: where a document can be legalised for Syria, because no source names an office; what Syria requires when remains arrive; anything drawn from reversing the procedure published for a United States citizen who dies in Syria; or any characterisation of the arrangement behind the telephone code and email domain the American embassy publishes, which are reported exactly as published. No individual is named. Contact Vargas-London with the governorate in Syria and where your relative is now, without sending medical or identity documents through the inquiry form.
