Translate a death certificate to English with registry fields and seals exactly where the original placed them.
Translating something else? Browse every document type — certificates, records, statements and transcripts.
Death certificates cross borders at hard moments: settling an estate with foreign assets, claiming life insurance, repatriation, closing accounts, survivor benefits. The offices involved check the translation against the original, so Reglyph rebuilds the certificate in English with the cause-of-death line, registry numbers and dates where the original put them, and leaves official seals exactly as they are.
It depends on the office. USCIS accepts a death certificate as proof that a prior marriage ended, with a certified English translation. Social Security prefers the US consular Report of Death when a US citizen died abroad, and arranges translations itself. A New York probate court wants an English translation with the translator's sworn affidavit, and bringing a body back to the UK needs a certified English translation. Reglyph's translation lets you read the record and check the certified version against it.
The situations people most often bring death certificates to us for — each one keeps the original layout, seals and tables.
The certificate itself is a page or two, but estate files grow: wills, property deeds and bank letters often need translating in the same proceeding. Upload them together, up to 50 pages per upload, and check that names and dates are spelled the same way across the file.
| Situation | What's asked for |
|---|---|
| US immigration: a prior marriage ended | USCIS accepts a divorce decree, an annulment decree or a death certificate, with a full English translation and the translator's signed certification. |
| US immigration: widow(er) petition | Form I-360, filed within two years of the US citizen spouse's death and before any remarriage, with a copy of the death certificate. |
| US Social Security, death abroad | The consular Report of Death is preferred evidence when a US citizen died abroad. Otherwise the original or a properly certified copy; SSA arranges the translation itself. |
| Probate in New York | Foreign-language exhibits need an English translation and an affidavit by the translator, which is sworn and goes further than a signed certification. |
| Repatriation to the UK | A certified English translation of the death certificate. |
From USCIS form instructions, SSA's program manual, New York law and GOV.UK, as of October 2026.
The death is registered locally, and the US consulate then prepares a Consular Report of Death of a US Citizen Abroad from the local certificate or official finding. It lists the cause of death as the local certificate states it. The next of kin receives a certified copy, and later copies come from the State Department's vital records office. Social Security treats this report as preferred evidence when its dates agree with the local certificate.
Death records differ more than birth records do, and the cause of death isn't always on them:
If the receiving country asks for an apostille, it goes on the original certificate. An apostille confirms the signature and seal, not the content, and it doesn't need translating. The certificate it's attached to still does.
| On the certificate | In the translated PDF |
|---|---|
| Printed fields, including the cause of death | Translated in place by machine translation. Have medical wording checked where an insurer or court relies on it. |
| Registry numbers and dates | Treated as numbers, not translated. Check them anyway. |
| Seals and stamps | Kept exactly as they are; the text inside a seal or stamp is not translated. |
| Handwritten entries and signatures | Kept as written, not translated. |
| Typewritten text on older certificates | Read like print and translated. |
Yes, with the rest of the printed text, by machine translation. Insurers and courts rely on the exact wording, so have a qualified translator check it wherever it matters.
Yes. For a US citizen who died abroad it prefers the consular Report of Death; otherwise it wants the original or a properly certified copy and arranges the translation itself.
Form I-360 filed within two years of the US citizen spouse's death, before any remarriage, with a copy of the death certificate and a certified English translation if it isn't in English.
Get the local death certificate, then the US consulate prepares a Consular Report of Death from it. Later certified copies come from the State Department's vital records office.
Yes. GOV.UK says to get a certified English translation of the death certificate.
With an English translation and an affidavit from the translator, which New York law requires for foreign-language papers filed in court.
No. An apostille confirms the signature and seal on the certificate and can't be rejected for being in another language; the certificate itself still needs translating.
Yes. Typewritten text reads like print, even on aged paper. Handwritten entries are kept as written, so read those yourself or leave them to your translator.
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The popular advice — extract the text, copy it into ChatGPT, paste it back — works but wrecks your layout. Here are all three methods, honestly compared.
Read guideThe rule itself is short. The mistakes people make around it — partial translations, missing seals, uncertified machine output — are what generate RFEs.
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