Our dear friend Elena is still in the Keizer Funeral Home here in Oregon. I spoke with the funeral representative today. She said that right now all the paperwork that accompanies the remains of a citizen re-entering their country of citizenship is at the translator's office. She expects that the translation (of things such as the death certificate), will be finished on Monday or Tuesday.
Keizer Funeral Home has a sister home in the San Francisco area, who will personally walk into the Russian Consolate building and make sure that the papers are received for processing. The Russian consolate is almost impossible to reach by phone. They will make sure they have all the papers necessary to prepare for Elena to re-enter the country.
She expects that all of this will be finished in two weeks.
Meanwhile, Mr. Lobodin and Kathie and I have been trying to find the most cost effective way to send her back home. Fed Ex, UPS, USPS do not ship cremated remains, as far as I have gotten answers. Although one time when I called FedEx said that they have no restrictions on items sent to a business location in Russia. The option that would work for sure is to buy an airline ticket for a literal seat on a plane - they can't take remains as cargo under the plane. But that is very expensive.
There is something the US customs office told me about "freight forwarding." Basically they handle difficult items or complicated itineraries. There are a lot of businesses of this variety to sort through. If you would like to research freight forwarding on google and give them a call, tell them it's gotta go from the US to Vladivostok, Russia and see if they say yes, they can do it.
That would help a lot.
We have two weeks to decide the best way to ship her home.
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| Elena in Voronezh, age 14 |
Keizer Funeral Home has a sister home in the San Francisco area, who will personally walk into the Russian Consolate building and make sure that the papers are received for processing. The Russian consolate is almost impossible to reach by phone. They will make sure they have all the papers necessary to prepare for Elena to re-enter the country.
She expects that all of this will be finished in two weeks.
Meanwhile, Mr. Lobodin and Kathie and I have been trying to find the most cost effective way to send her back home. Fed Ex, UPS, USPS do not ship cremated remains, as far as I have gotten answers. Although one time when I called FedEx said that they have no restrictions on items sent to a business location in Russia. The option that would work for sure is to buy an airline ticket for a literal seat on a plane - they can't take remains as cargo under the plane. But that is very expensive.
There is something the US customs office told me about "freight forwarding." Basically they handle difficult items or complicated itineraries. There are a lot of businesses of this variety to sort through. If you would like to research freight forwarding on google and give them a call, tell them it's gotta go from the US to Vladivostok, Russia and see if they say yes, they can do it.
That would help a lot.
We have two weeks to decide the best way to ship her home.
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