Reviewed by Carlos Vargas, Texas Licensed Funeral Director (TFSC #119648) ·
Houston covers Texas, and says so twice
Turkey does what most countries in these guides do not: it publishes which post covers which state, and publishes it in two places. The Consulate General in Houston states that its area of jurisdiction covers Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Its contact page repeats the same eight. A Dallas family has a post, and it is in Houston.
The particulars: 5333 Westheimer Road, Suite 1050, Houston, TX 77056, telephone +1-346-439 65 60, email consulate.houston@mfa.gov.tr. Working hours are Monday to Friday, nine until half past twelve. There is an after-hours emergency number, +1-832-774 18 61, and a 24-hour consular call centre for the United States and Canada on +1 888 566 76 56.
One technical note, because it cost us time. The post’s hostname carries a hyphen, houston-cg.mfa.gov.tr. The dotted forms that other Turkish missions appear to use do not resolve at all, so an old bookmark in that shape fails outright rather than redirecting.
Three named procedures, published in Turkish
The consular services menu for the Houston post publishes a death section, headed ÖLÜM, and it contains exactly three procedures. We read the whole branch; there is no fourth.
The first is Cenaze Nakil Belgesi, the transport-of-remains certificate, and its published title scopes it to those who will be buried in Turkey. It must be applied for in person, after an appointment. The second is Ölüm Tescili, the registration of the death, and that one may be applied for by post. The third is Uluslararası Ölüm Kayıt Örneği, the international death record extract known as Formül C.
Two things follow for a funeral director. Someone must attend in Houston in person for the transport certificate, and the appointment is booked through the Ministry’s central consular portal at konsolosluk.gov.tr rather than by ringing the post. And the death registration, which needs no visit, can be started by post in parallel instead of queued behind the visit.
The menu is published in Turkish even on the English pages. The English names above are our translations of the published Turkish titles, not wording the consulate publishes in English.
| Procedure | How it is filed |
|---|---|
| Cenaze Nakil Belgesi, transport of remains | In person, after an appointment |
| Ölüm Tescili, registration of the death | By post |
| Uluslararası Ölüm Kayıt Örneği, Formül C | Not stated on the menu |
| Appointments | Through konsolosluk.gov.tr |
| Document list or fee for any of them | Not published to an anonymous reader |
The only transport document is written for burial
This matters to any Dallas family weighing cremation, and it has to be put carefully.
The published title of the transport certificate is scoped, in Turkish, to those who will be buried in Turkey. Nothing anywhere in the three-item death branch mentions ashes, an urn, cremated remains or cremation. We searched the whole rendered menu, in both languages’ terms, and found none of them.
Now the limit on that finding, which is the important half. What we verified is the menu, not the procedures behind it. The detail pages that would set out what the transport certificate actually covers did not render for us at all, so a provision for ashes could sit inside one of them and we would not have seen it. We are telling you what Turkey publishes at the level we could read, and no further. If cremation is under consideration, that question goes to the consulate before anything else is decided — not to this page, and not to anybody’s assumption.
What the portal will not show an anonymous reader
Turkey’s consular portal says, in its own section headings, that each procedure carries both its required documents and its fees. So the checklist and the price exist and are published somewhere. We could not get either to appear.
The procedure detail pages return a perfectly normal response — a success code, tens of thousands of bytes — containing none of the procedure. We requested two different procedures and got back byte-identical pages, which is how we know the body is not served to an anonymous request at all: the portal wants a country and a mission chosen in the session, then loads the detail on the client side. Two attempts of the same shape was enough, and we stopped rather than repeat it a third time.
So this page names no Turkish document list, no Turkish consular fee in any currency, no coffin or embalming specification, no customs or public health requirement, and nothing that must be obtained in Turkey before the consulate will act. Not because those things do not exist — several of them almost certainly do — but because we did not read them, and an invented checklist is worse than an admitted gap.
The Texas half is fully documented
Where Turkey is quiet, Texas is precise, and the Texas work can start the same day.
Türkiye has been a party to the Apostille Convention since 29 September 1985, on a ratification the HCCH status table dates to 31 July 1985 against a signature of 8 May 1962. A Texas death certificate is therefore authenticated by apostille, with no Turkish consular legalisation after it.
The Texas Secretary of State is the only agency in the state that can issue one, and it issues a single universal apostille. It costs fifteen dollars per document, and the page says expressly that this is per document and not per page. Death certificates are recordable documents, and so are burial transit forms — the item most families never realise is apostillable. Recordable documents must be less than five years old, and must not be notarised or turned into notary-certified copies.
One boundary worth knowing before anyone drives to Austin: Texas will not apostille anything issued by the federal government. Those go to the United States State Department instead.
Questions families ask about a return to Turkey
- Which Turkish consulate covers Dallas?
- The Consulate General in Houston. It publishes a jurisdiction of eight states, and Texas is the first one named on it.
- Can cremated remains be sent to Turkey?
- We cannot tell you, and we will not guess. The only transport document Turkey publishes is titled for those who will be buried there, and nothing in the death menu mentions cremated remains — but we could verify that at menu level only. Put the question to the consulate.
- What does the Turkish transport certificate cost?
- It is not published to an anonymous reader. The portal states that each procedure has documents and fees, but the detail pages did not render for us, so no amount in any currency is stated here.
Sources checked and case confirmation
Sources checked September 22, 2026 on the Turkish Consulate General in Houston pages for the mission, its contact details and its consular procedure list; the Ministry’s central consular portal; the HCCH status table for the Apostille Convention; and the Texas Secretary of State pages on authentication and on requesting a universal apostille. What this page deliberately does not claim: the document checklist for any Turkish procedure, or any Turkish consular fee, because the detail pages did not render for an anonymous request; whether cremated remains may be shipped to Turkey, because the source is silent and we verified that silence only at menu level; any Turkish customs, public health or port of entry rule; any coffin or embalming specification; any deadline or receiving authority for the death registration; and anything that may have to be obtained in Turkey before the consulate acts. No airline or route is stated here. Contact Vargas-London with the province in Turkey and where your relative is now, without sending medical or identity documents through the inquiry form.
