A death certificate is an official statement, which comprises of deceased’s name, reason of death, date and time of death and signed by an authorized medical practitioner. Death certificates serve the critical role in providing documentation for legal or administrative purpose in home country as well as in foreign countries. Death certificate is required to be attested if it is going to be used overseas. A death certificate comes under the category of personal documents. There are two types of procedures for death certificate attestation in India.
The first method consists of State Home department authentication of the document at the state level. For this, initially the department will verify that the person is actually deceased or not by cross checking the information with the issuing authority. Once the home department scrutinizes everything, then it will validate the document with its official sign and stamp. Thereupon, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) will attest the documents on the basis of home department authentication. Ultimately the document will be attested by the embassy of the respective country applicant wish to go.
The second method of death certificate attestation includes receiving a notary stamp on the death certificates. Notarization legalizes the document for further proceeding. Secondly, the death certificate will be attested by the Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), New Delhi. The personal documents such as birth certificate, marriage certificate, death certificate etc, which lacks State Home department authentication, can be attested from the SDM, New Delhi. (Note: Only SDM, Delhi, can attest personal documents for all the states). Then, subsequently the certificate will be later attested by the MEA, and then by the embassy.
The death certificate attestation service is also offered by professional agencies in different cities of India. You can simply submit the death certificate with them, rather than visiting each and every government office for attestation. They will attest your documents on your behalf, and you will have to pay them extra for their services. Usually, people prefer these agencies instead of attesting the documents by themselves.
What are the documents required for death certificate attestation?
For getting the death certificates attested from the concerned authority you are required to submit some supporting documents at their office. They are:
1. Original and photocopy of death certificate
2. Copy of deceased’s passport
What are the uses of death certificate attestation?
- If you are applying a family visa for your parents overseas, and if one of them is deceased then you will require to submit attested death certificate along with visa application.
- If the deceased took out a life insurance policy, then his/her heirs are entitled to a death benefit, and they can claim so with the help of attested death certificate.
Apostille: Another Method of Document Legalization
The apostille is another method of document attestation which is used only in Hague convention countries. The objective of the apostille was to abolish the requirement of diplomatic or consular legalization for foreign public documents. Apostille made this process much shorter and easier than before. All types of documents like death certificate, marriage certificate, affidavit, engineering degree certificate, business mergers, and etc. are liable for the apostille. India became apostille convention’s signatory on July 14, 2005. For apostilling documents, make sure that the country you are visiting accepts apostille documents. Apostille services are available all across India. You can avail apostille stamp services for birth and marriage certificates in Pune and other major cities of India. For apostille, initially the documents will be approved by the state level authority, i.e., the State Home department, the Human Resource Development, and the Chamber of Commerce. Thereupon, they will be apostille by the MEA.
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