French Death Certificate Translation
French death certificate translation to English for a widow's or widower's petition, an estate, a life insurance claim or a pension, from an acte de décès written by a French mairie, the Directeur de l'état civil du Québec, a Belgian commune or a Haitian officier de l'état civil, and into French for a notaire handling a succession.
- Up to 250 words per page
- $25 per page
- Standard turnaround
- From 24 hours
- Certificate of accuracy
- Signed & stamped
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Written for French death certificate records
The acte de décès and the paper that holds the cause of death
A French death produces two documents, and the one families hold almost never says what the person died of.
The acte de décès has no cause of death
The acte de décès is drawn up by the mairie of the commune where the person died, from a declaration usually made within a day of the death. It gives the date, hour and place of death, the deceased's birth date and place, occupation, address and parents, the spouse as époux, épouse, veuf or veuve of a named person, and the declarant. The cause is not on it. US insurers are often surprised by that, and the translation adds nothing to fill the gap.
Certificat de décès and the sealed medical part
The cause of death is on the certificat de décès, the form the doctor completes. Its administrative part goes to the mairie; the medical part is sealed and sent to the CépiDc at INSERM for statistics, and the family does not receive it. An insurer that insists on a cause usually gets a separate certificat médical from the attending doctor or the hospital. We translate whichever paper you obtain, and the doctor's form is headed as a medical certificate so nobody takes it for the civil record.
Transcriptions, Québec and late registrations
When someone dies away from home, the acte is drawn up where the death occurred and transcribed on the register of the commune of residence, so two mairies can issue copies with different act numbers, and either is valid. Québec issues a certificat de décès and a copie d'acte de décès from the Directeur de l'état civil; the funeral home's constat and the hospital's attestation are not substitutes. In Senegal, Mali or the DRC a death registered after the legal deadline needs a court ruling, which arrives stapled to the acte and is translated with it.
Who is asking for your French death certificate translation?
The translation is the same. What changes is whether the recipient wants anything added to it.
USCIS
USCIS asks for a complete English translation and a signed certification from the translator. No notarization is needed.
Insurers and Social Security
Life insurance and survivor benefit claims accept a certified translation. Add the medical certificate if the claim turns on the cause of death.
Courts and consulates abroad
A probate court or a consulate handling a repatriation or an estate usually wants the original apostilled and the translation certified or notarized.
Before you upload
Three things that save a day of back and forth on a French death certificate.
Send the civil record, not only the medical form
The registry act is the document recipients ask for. Add the doctor's certificate as a second file if an insurer or a court wants the cause of death.
Include the reverse and the stamps
Issue stamps, the registrar's signature and folio numbers often sit on the back or at the edge. Photograph both sides flat with the whole page in frame.
Give us the names as they appear elsewhere
Tell us the English spelling of the deceased and of the spouse or parents named on the record, so the translation matches the petition, policy or probate file it joins.
Details and pricing
What is included in a French death certificate translation
One price per page covers the translation and its certification. A page is up to 250 words, and the quote tells you the page count before you pay.
Everything on the death certificate is translated, including stamps, seals and handwritten notes. Tell us the English spelling you use for each name when you order.
Certified Translation
Word-for-word translation with a certificate of accuracy for official use.
$25
USD / page
up to 250 words per page
Included
- Signed & stamped certification of translation accuracy
- Certified by a professional translator
- Digital delivery via PDF
- Review and approve final translation
- 100% Guaranteed Acceptance
- Standard turnaround starting at 24 hours
Optional services
- Expedited turnaround
- Priority handling when your deadline is shorter than the standard turnaround.
- By deadline
- Notarization
- A notary public signs and stamps the certification statement.
- $20 per order
- Physical copy
- A wet-ink original of your translation, mailed by express courier.
- $35 per order
- Apostille
- Authenticates the notary’s signature and seal for use in Hague Convention countries.
- $180 per document
What the certificate of accuracy states
Your translation arrives with a Certification of Translation Accuracy issued by ImmiTranslate. It is the page the receiving organization checks first.
- The translation is complete and accurate.
- The document title and the language pair.
- The translator is competent in both languages.
- A signature and the ImmiTranslate certification stamp.
- Our American Translators Association corporate membership.
Our translation process
Our goal is to make the translation process as simple as possible for you. Our service is streamlined specifically for documents of this nature.
French Death Certificate FAQ
Most questions about pricing and turnaround can be answered faster by requesting a quote.
- Can anyone request a copy of a French acte de décès for the translation?
- Yes. Unlike a birth or marriage act, a copie intégrale of an acte de décès can be requested by anyone, from the mairie of the place of death or of the commune of residence, online through service-public.fr for most communes. Order a recent copy if the recipient wants one dated within the last few months, then send us a scan of it.
- Which document proves to USCIS that my earlier marriage ended by my spouse's death?
- The acte de décès, with its line naming the deceased as époux or épouse of you. That is the line USCIS reads, so it is translated word for word with your name spelled as the act spells it. If the death happened abroad and was transcribed by a French consulate into the registers kept in Nantes, the transcription is also a French acte and we translate it the same way.
- Do you translate a US death certificate into French for a succession in France?
- Yes. A notaire opening a succession, a caisse de retraite paying a pension de réversion, or a bank closing an account asks for the US certificate in French. US certificates carry the cause of death and the informant's details, which a French reader does not expect, so everything is translated as printed. The notaire will usually want an apostille on the US original from the issuing state; the translation can be notarized on request.
- How much does a certified translation cost?
- Certified translation is $25 per page, with a page counted as up to 250 words. Notarization, a mailed physical copy and an apostille are optional and priced separately.
- How long does a certified translation take?
- Standard turnaround starts at 24 hours and depends on the length and language of your documents. If you have a deadline, include it in your quote request.
Other French documents we translate
Death certificate translation in other languages
Each of these pages is written for that language's death certificate records.
Sending it with an application? Read the USCIS translation requirements, Insurance claim translations, Inheritance claim translations before you order.