There are few places in the world where deaths are not documented officially. Just like births and marriages, successful completion of educational and training courses and awards and prizes, there is always some kind of official document that is printed and held by the person that it is meant for or, in the case of a death certificate, kept by the closest family members.
When people move from one country to another they take their official documents with them. If these documents are in a different language from the country in which they move to, they more than likely need to translate them into the language of that country.
If you intend migrating to the U.S., however, you are unlikely to need a death certificate or death certificate translation immediately. The United States Citizenship and Immigration Service (U.S.C.I.S.), the agency that deals with all visas and citizenship applications, is more interested in other important documents like birth and marriage certificates as well as passports, educational qualifications, employment records and police certificates. If these documents are not printed in English then the standard requirement is that they are translated into English by a certified translator.
Why are death certificates needed?
If death certificate translations are not required by U.S. government authorities for visa and citizenship applications, one might wonder why there is a need to have a death certificate translation at all. In fact, the need for these sorts of translations would be quite rare. Most death certificates are issued to confirm the reason why a person died and when and where they died.
The death certificate is a public record of the passing away of a person and is of particular significance for any close relatives, especially if they are due to inherit part of the estate of that person after death.
The death certificate may be used to set in motion a process of inheritance and also settle debts and other unresolved legal and financial issues that the deceased left behind before death. In some circumstances, the death certificate might lead to a police investigation if foul play is indicated as being a reason for that person’s death.
If the family member who is most related to the deceased moves to another part of the world and several years later has to sort out legal issues it is conceivable that there may be a request for the citation of a death certificate. If an attorney or the legal representative in the new country is used to resolve a financial issue, e.g. a decision on inheritance, the death certificate would have a particular significance and therefore a death certificate translation would be advisable.
Need for accuracy in all certificate translations
Death certificate translations should not be left to an amateur translator. There is often too much at stake to allow the possibility of inaccuracies left within the translated copy. It is best that a professional death certificate translation service such as the one that we provide here at Cinch Translations is chosen to do the job efficiently and effectively.
