ABC / Death Certificate

Death Certificate

* DESCRIPTION: A death certificate is a document issued by a government official such as a registrar of vital statistics that declares the date, location and cause of a person's death. In the United States, death certificates are considered public domain documents and can therefore be obtained for any individual regardless of the requester's relationship to the deceased.

In the United States, certificates issued to the general public for deaths after 1990 may in some states be redacted to erase the specific cause of death (in cases where death was from natural causes) to comply with HIV confidentiality rules. In New York State, for instance, the cause of death on a general death certificate is only specified if death was accidental, homicide, suicide, or declared in absentia; all other deaths are only referred to as "natural". All states have provisions, however, whereby immediate family members, law enforcement agencies, and governmental authorities (such as occupational health and safety groups) are able to obtain death certificates containing the full cause of death, even in cases of natural death.

* LEGALIZATION: APOSTILLE: If the document is intended for use in a foreign country it has to be legalized (another word is “authenticated”) for foreign use. This is a process in which various seals are placed on the document. The legalization procedure basically depends on one factor: whether the target country has joined the Convention Abolishing the Requirement of Legalization for Foreign Public Documents (“The Hague Convention”). In this case the only legalization required is an Apostille certificate. (Apostille is a French word which means a certification). A document bearing an Apostille is valid in all of the Hague countries.

* CONSULAR LEGLAIZATION: Many foreign jurisdictions have not joined the Hague Convention. If the document is intended for a non-Hague country the consular legalization will be required. Before the consulate or the embassy can stamp the document, the document has to be authenticated on the state and federal levels.
* LEGALIZATION REQUIREMENTS: Only certified copies of Death Certificate can be legalized for use in foreign countries. Notarized or computer generated copies are not accepted.

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