Death Certificate Authentication for Cuba

When a Cuban citizen dies in Florida, relatives often need the death transcribed in Cuba so a will, a house or a pension can be dealt with there. The consulate's death transcript requires the death certificate issued by the civil registry where the death happened, translated into Spanish, certified and legalized by the competent authorities and by the Cuban consular official. The transcription itself is free under the consulate's rules, but the legalizations are charged. In Florida, start with a certified copy from the Bureau of Vital Statistics or a county health department.

A certified copy signed by the State Registrar and certified in 2014 or later. The year of death doesn't matter; the certification date does. Copies with or without the cause of death can both be apostilled, but photocopies and notarized copies cannot.

Order through VitalChek (vitalchek.com), by mail or in person at the Bureau of Vital Statistics, or at the county health department for deaths from 2009 on. The version without the cause of death is available to anyone 18 or older; the version with the cause of death is restricted to eligible requesters. These fees are not included in our $220.

State fee for this document: $10 — included in our price. Full details on the death certificate page.

After we return your document with its Florida authentication certificate, it goes to the U.S. Department of State for federal authentication, and then to the Consular Office of Cuba in the United States at the Embassy of Cuba in Washington, D.C., for Cuban consular legalization. Some uses in Cuba (for example, documents for a marriage performed in Cuba) also call for legalization by Cuba's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX). We don't handle, arrange or refer anyone for the federal, consular or Cuban steps.

We don't handle or arrange the U.S. Department of State or embassy steps. See how non-Hague authentication works.

Most Florida documents for Cuba pass through the Consular Office of Cuba in the United States, part of the Embassy of Cuba in Washington, D.C., which registers births, marriages and deaths of Cuban citizens and legalizes foreign documents. In Cuba, the records end up with the Registro del Estado Civil, Cuban notaries, the immigration authorities (for residence applications) and, for marriages of foreigners, the International Legal Consultancy and law firms (bufetes) that perform them.

Cuba's consular instructions say foreign documents must be translated into Spanish by a sworn, legalized translator, and both the original and the translation must be legalized by the competent authorities and then by the Cuban consulate. The alternative it lists: legalize only the original, then have the translation done and legalized at the Cuban consulate. If you translate in Florida, the translation should be certified by the translator, notarized by a different notary, and authenticated in Florida along with the original. Divorce decrees need a full translation; summaries are not accepted.

The consulate's published requirements set hard limits for some uses: a criminal record certificate for a foreigner's residence application must be no more than three months old, medical results no more than six months, and a single-status certificate for marriage in Cuba must be issued within six months. For everything else, order a fresh certified copy and ask the receiving office how recent it must be.

Consular office serving Florida: Consular Office of Cuba in the United States (Embassy of Cuba, Washington, D.C.).

$220 per document, $380 for two and $160 each for three or more — the state fee, request form, in-person filing in Tallahassee and FedEx shipping inside the U.S. are included. Shipping the finished authentication to Cuba is a flat $100 per order.

Not included: whatever the issuing office charges for the certified copy or certificate, and notarization (online notarization is $40 for the first document — $10 notarization fee + $30 technology platform fee — and $20 for each additional one).