Death Certificates

What is attestation of a death certificate?

Also known as legalisation, this process involves a series of steps which takes a document issued in one country and makes it legally recognised in another. These procedures can be complicated as there are several factors which determine which steps are required to have your attestation completed. These requirements vary from country to country. We can help you with the attestation of any death certificate issued anywhere within the UK and Ireland. This covers the following registration areas:

England & Wales (General Register Office - GRO)
Scotland (General Register Office for Scotland)
Northern Ireland (General Register Office for N. Ireland)
Eire - Southern Ireland (General Register Office - Ireland)
Overseas UK registrations
All Local Register Offices*

To order the attestation of a death certificate online, start by Choosing a Country

How do I present a death certificate for attestation?

In order to attest a death certificate, an original document must be presented. This simply means it must be government issued, carrying the official General Registry Office (GRO) seal; a photocopy will not be accepted under any circumstances, even if certified by a solicitor. If you would like to keep your original document clean, you must request an official duplication of the document for the attestation process.

All documents must be processed in the country of origin. If the death ocurred overseas and the certificate was issued by a foreign government office, it must be attested in country in which the event took place. Don't worry, we can still help! If you have a non-UK document, we can attest documents from over 150 countries.

Please Note - You may encounter issues with original death certificates issued more than 20 years ago. This can happen if there are difficulties locating a sample signature of the registrar signing the death certificate. If time delays are likely to cause significant difficulties to your schedule, you would be advised to seek to have a duplicate issued of the document and have the attestation process carried out on that version. We offer an official duplication service should you need it for a replacement death certificate.