Death certificate

Description

Obtaining an act of death or a death certificate issued by the Registrar of civil status

• Obtaining a death certificate: To begin settling an estate, it is essential to obtain a death certificate issued by the Directeur de l'état civil.
• Exclusive authority: Only the Directeur de l'état civil du Québec is authorized to issue an official death certificate.
• Institutional request: Private and governmental institutions generally require the death certificate during the estate settlement process.
• Prior registration required: Before a civil status document can be issued, registration of the death in the Quebec Civil Registry is required. Once this step has been completed, the death certificate can be issued.
• Registration times: Registering a death generally takes between 30 and 45 working days, starting from receipt of the declaration of death by the Directeur de l'état civil, sent either by the funeral home or with the doctor's report of death. An additional 10 working days may be required after registration for the document to be issued, according to current rules.
• Linguistic compliance :
  • All death certificates issued after June 1, 2022 are written exclusively in French.
  • For death certificates issued before June 1, 2022, the language used will depend on the language of the coroner's or physician's report. If these reports are in English, the certificate will also be written in English.
  • The death certificate is issued only in the language indicated at the time of death registration.

• For further legal information on liquidating or settling an estate, we invite you to consult our frequently asked legal questions.

• Although the application is processed within 2 or 3 working days, delivery of the certificate depends on the time taken by the Registrar of Civil Status to issue the document.

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