Reviewed by Carlos Vargas, Texas Licensed Funeral Director (TFSC #119648) ·
One question at a time
Parents who lose a baby or a child far from their own families are asked to make decisions while they are barely able to think. Some want their child buried beside grandparents in their home country. The steps are similar to any repatriation, but the paperwork can be different, and the people who can explain it are spread between the hospital, the funeral home, a registrar and a consulate.
This page lists the questions and who can answer each one, so that a relative or friend can help carry them. It decides nothing, promises nothing about what an office will allow, and gives no prices or dates. You can mark a line and come back later.
Questions, and who can answer them
Mark only what helps. A relative or friend can do this for you.
The controls require JavaScript. You can print this page and mark the list by hand.
Which Texas record applies
The family does not choose the type of record; a professional determines it. The Texas DSHS Fetal Death Registration Handbook says a Certificate of Fetal Death must be filed for a fetal death weighing 350 grams or more or, if the weight is unknown, at 20 weeks of gestation or more, and that registration is not required below those thresholds. The physician, medical examiner or justice of the peace determines the weight or the length of gestation. If the infant lived after delivery, even for a short time, the handbook says the death is registered with the standard Certificate of Death, regardless of weight.
The handbook also explains who files. When arrangements are made through a funeral home, the funeral director completes the fetal death certificate, with information from the hospital and the attending physician, and files it with the local registrar within five days. If the parents surrendered the baby to the hospital for disposition, the hospital is solely responsible for the certificate. Knowing which of these happened tells you whom to ask for records.
A commemorative certificate, and the permit to travel
The same handbook describes the Certificate of Birth Resulting in Stillbirth, a commemorative certificate that parents may request from the state with Form VS-301, and says the funeral director gives parents information about it. It is a keepsake for the family. Ask the consulate before assuming any office abroad will accept it as a travel or registration document.
For travel, the DSHS Death Registration Handbook, revised January 2026, applies the Burial-Transit Permit to “a dead body or fetus” that is removed from the state, carried by common carrier or cremated, and directs funeral directors to the destination’s consulate for its specific requirements. A consulate may ask for different papers when the record is a fetal death certificate, or may ask for the parents’ own documents. Those are questions for the consulate, and the answers belong in the notes below.
How to use the three marks
Every line starts as “To ask.” Change a line when the person named has answered, and note who and when. Use “Does not apply” freely; not every line fits every family.
| Mark | Meaning |
|---|---|
| To ask | Nobody has answered this yet |
| Confirmed by me | You have an answer and noted who gave it |
| Does not apply | This line is not part of your situation |
A relative can build the list and make the calls. If the family chooses cremation and a parent will carry the ashes, our checklist for flying with cremated remains covers the airport and airline questions.
Keep it private and simple
Any edit clears the previous list, so build it again after a change. The script does not transmit your entries or write them to browser storage, and other services on this site follow their own privacy terms. Write roles, offices and dates in the notes. Do not enter the child’s name, the parents’ names, medical details or record numbers.
Questions parents and relatives ask
- Does this page tell us whether our baby can be taken to our country?
- No. It lists whom to ask. The destination’s consulate, the carrier and the Texas registrar each decide their own part.
- Who decides whether a fetal death certificate or a death certificate is used?
- The physician, medical examiner or justice of the peace, under the rules in the DSHS handbook. The family does not have to decide this.
- Can someone else handle these calls for us?
- Yes. The list is written so a relative, friend or chaplain can make the calls and note the answers. Some offices will release records only to a parent or another qualified applicant.
