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Home > Guides > Ordering a death certificate by mail
Write to the vital records office of the state or province where the death occurred: fill out its application, include your ID and proof you're eligible (immediate family or legal representative), and order several copies at once. Banks, insurers, and courts usually want a certified copy each, and ordering later costs you another round of waiting.
| Step | What you do | The trip-up people hit |
|---|---|---|
| Find the right office | Order from the vital records office of the state or county where the death occurred, not where the person lived | Sending the request to the wrong state guarantees a rejection letter instead of certificates |
| Get the application | Download the office's death-certificate request form from its official site | Each state uses its own form; a generic letter may be returned |
| Prove who you are | Include a photocopy of your government ID and whatever proof of eligibility the form requires | Many offices reject unsigned applications or unclear ID copies |
| Pay the per-copy fee | Enclose a check or money order for the amount the office's site lists (never send cash) | Underpaying the fee stalls the whole request |
| Order several copies | Count one certified copy per bank, insurer, and government office, then add a spare or two | Ordering too few means a second application and a second wait later |
Not everyone can order one. States restrict access to immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, sibling), the legal representative or executor of the estate, and people with a documented legal interest, such as an attorney handling the estate. You will usually have to state your relationship to the deceased on the application, and some offices ask for documentation of that relationship. If you are outside the eligible list, your request will be denied: this is the most common rejection reason after wrong-office filings.
Expect to provide the deceased's full name, date and place of death, Social Security number if you have it, your name and relationship, your mailing address, and the number of copies. Many states offer two versions: a short form without the cause of death and a long form with it. Some offices restrict the long form to a narrower list of requesters, so check which version your banks and insurers actually need before you choose: most want the full certificate, not the informational copy some states sell to the general public.
A certified copy is the one with the registrar's raised seal or stamp. That seal is the whole point: it is what makes institutions accept the copy as official. A plain photocopy, even of a certified copy, is not a certified copy, and banks and courts will reject it.
More than feels right. Each institution that needs proof typically keeps the copy you send: one for each bank or investment account, one per insurer, one for the probate court, one for the employer or pension plan, and one for your own permanent file. Count your list, then add two spares. The marginal cost of extra copies on the first order is small; a second order later means a new application, a new fee, and a new processing wait while an institution sits on an incomplete file.
Order from the place of death, full stop. A person who lived in Florida but died in Georgia has a Georgia death certificate, filed with Georgia vital records. The same applies across borders: Canadian deaths are registered with the province's vital statistics office (ServiceOntario in Ontario, for example), and the certified copies come from that office's mail-in process. If the death occurred abroad, the US embassy or consulate issues a Consular Report of Death Abroad, which serves as the official record: order certified copies of that from the State Department's records office.
Keep copies of the application, the check stub, and the office's receipt if one comes. If the certificates do not arrive, that paper trail is what the office uses to trace your request.
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