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Certified South African Death Certificate Translation

eVerbary translates your South African death certificate into English for $24.95 per page with no word cap, by a professional human translator, with a signed certification. Most orders are delivered within a few hours. Accepted by USCIS and by US universities, colleges and schools, or your money back.

Registered with Home Affairs on form BI-1663

A death in South Africa is reported to Home Affairs on the notification of death, form BI-1663, which the informant, a medical practitioner (in some rural areas a traditional leader) and a Home Affairs official or police officer complete in turn. A death report, form BI-1680, and a burial order, form BI-14, follow; no burial can take place without the order. The death certificate itself is issued by Home Affairs.

As with births, the unabridged certificate is the one offices want, and current ones are in English and need no translation. Older certificates and burial records may be in Afrikaans, and very old church burial registers in Dutch. See our Afrikaans and Dutch pages.

Unnatural deaths, and estates

When a death is unnatural — an accident, violence, a suspected suicide — a post-mortem is held and the case may go to an inquest, and the certificate may say only that the cause is under investigation. The post-mortem findings are a separate document; see our expert report page.

For USCIS the certificate usually proves that a spouse or a former spouse has died, so the marriage certificate goes with it. For an estate in the US, documents from the Master of the High Court, such as letters of executorship, are often asked for too, and we translate any part of them that is not in English.

What USCIS requires

Under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3), a foreign-language document must be accompanied by a complete English translation and the translator's certification that it is accurate. Every seal, stamp and marginal note is part of the document, so every one is translated.

State agencies set their own rules — see government agencies — and what our certification states is on this page.

How it works

Upload a photo or a scan of your document, pick the language pair and check out online. You never have to mail originals: a legible copy is all we need.

A professional human translator, never machine translation, translates the document word for word and mirrors the layout of the original. Every certified translation ships with a signed Certificate of Translation Accuracy that meets the requirements of USCIS, courts and universities.

Your translation is delivered digitally, usually within 24 hours for documents of one to three pages, and same-day delivery is available. If anything needs adjusting, we revise it.

Certified vs. standard translation

A certified translation is a word-for-word translation accompanied by a signed statement attesting to its accuracy and completeness. It is what official bodies require: USCIS, courts, universities and government agencies. Certified translations are $24.95 per page, where one sheet of your document is one page, with no word cap.

A standard translation is the same professional human translation without the certificate, for when you only need to understand the content or for internal or informal use. It is billed at the same $24.95 per page with no word cap.

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