UK death certificate translation into Turkish

The certificate and its variants

A death in England or Wales is registered within five days at the register office for the district where it happened, and certified copies of the entry (ölüm belgesi) are issued by that office or later by the General Register Office. The certificate gives the date and place of death, the deceased's name, sex, date and place of birth, occupation and usual address, the cause of death as certified by the doctor or coroner, the informant and the registrar's signature. Scotland and Northern Ireland issue their own extracts.

Two other papers are sometimes confused with it. A coroner's interim certificate of the fact of death is issued while an inquest is open and is not a register entry. The medical certificate of cause of death is the doctor's form handed to the family for registration. Turkish bodies want the registered death certificate; where an inquest delays it, tell us and we will translate the interim certificate with a note explaining its status.

Why a Turkish office wants it

• Inheritance (veraset). Heirs of a person who owned property, a bank account or a vehicle in Türkiye need a certificate of inheritance (veraset ilamı) from a notary or, where a foreign or dual-national heir is involved, from a civil court of peace (sulh hukuk mahkemesi). The foreign death certificate is the first document in that file. The consulate does not issue a veraset ilamı. See inheritance in Türkiye for heirs in the UK.
• Nüfus record. A Turkish citizen's death abroad is reported so that the family register is closed; the consulate can do this from the UK certificate, and a nüfus müdürlüğü in Türkiye can do it from the translated one.
• SGK and pension funds. Stopping a pension and starting a survivor's pension (dul ve yetim aylığı) for a widow or children.
• Tapu and banks. Transferring title (intikal) and releasing accounts once the veraset ilamı is issued.
• Courts. Pending cases in which the deceased was a party.

Legalising a GRO certificate

The certificate goes to the FCDO for an apostille first. Death certificates are GRO documents, and GOV.UK lists them among the documents for which an e-Apostille cannot be issued, so this is a paper application: £45, usually up to 25 working days plus post. A UK legalisation partner can order it for the FCDO fee plus £20 handling if you would rather not deal with the forms during a difficult time. We then translate the certificate together with the apostille, a translator sworn before an Ankara notary signs the translation, and the notary attaches a copy of the apostilled certificate. Courts handling a veraset file with a foreign heir sometimes ask for the translation to be apostilled as well; that is done at the Ankara kaymakamlık for £15 and adds 1 to 3 working days.

Read dealing with a death in Türkiye or the UK for the sequence of certificates, repatriation papers and the veraset application.

Cause of death and medical wording

The cause-of-death line often carries Latin or abbreviated medical terms and the phrase “I certify” from the doctor. We translate these with the standard Turkish medical terms so that a Turkish insurer or pension fund can act on the wording, and we mark the informant's qualification (for example “daughter, present at the death”) as it appears, because Turkish notaries check who reported the death.

Price, timing and delivery

One certificate with its apostille is 1 to 2 pages: £6.50 to £13.00 for the translation, with the Ankara notary tariff of about £13.50 per page and £5 handling on top; an apostille of the translation is £15. No UK VAT is charged. We translate in 1 to 2 working days and the notary signs the same or the next working day. A scan comes by e-mail; the wet-sealed original, which the notary or court issuing the veraset ilamı keeps, goes by courier for £30 to the UK or, more often for this document, straight to the lawyer or relative in Türkiye who is filing the application. There is no collection option.