Paperwork handled on your behalf in Riga

Filing the papers yourself is not difficult — on latvija.gov.lv the benefit application takes about a quarter of an hour. The difficulty is elsewhere: in the week after a death there is neither the time nor the composure for queues, and each institution keeps its own hours. That is the part most families hand over.

Call +371 2208 4540 — the specialist on duty answers around the clock and will tell you in the first conversation which papers your situation requires.

What the service covers

• Medical certificate of the cause of death — arranged with the hospital or the family doctor and collected by us.
• Registration of the death at the civil registry office and collection of the death certificate.
• Application for a grave site, or for permission to bury in a family plot, agreed with the cemetery supervisor.
• Funeral benefit application to VSAA and, where due, to the Riga municipality.
• Cremation documents and the cremation certificate needed to bury the urn.
• Agreeing the date with the cemetery, the crematorium or the farewell hall.

The full list of documents, with deadlines and institutions, is set out separately on documents for a funeral in Riga. Benefit amounts and the procedure are on funeral benefit.

What we need from the family

Three things: a power of attorney so that we may act on your behalf, the documents of the deceased if they are available, and a bank account number for the VSAA transfer. The power of attorney can be arranged even when relatives are abroad — we handle such cases regularly.

One point to be clear about: the benefit money always goes to the family's account, never to the funeral home. We prepare and file the application, but VSAA pays the claimant.

How long it takes

The registry office records the death on the day of the report, so the certificate is usually in hand on the first or second working day. The grave site application follows immediately, and the cemetery supervisor is notified at least 48 hours before the burial. The benefit application goes in parallel — there are six months for it, but no reason to wait.

In practice this means a funeral in Riga can take place within three to five days, and the paperwork does not hold the date back.

What the service does not include

We do not handle probate — that is the notary's domain, and it requires the original death certificate. Nor do we close the deceased's bank accounts, transfer tenancy agreements or recalculate the surviving spouse's pension; we will tell you where to go, but the family attends those institutions itself.

Document handling is included in the funeral plans — there is no separate charge for it. The estimate is fixed before any work begins.