What is this application for?
If there's an error on a death certificate, you can apply to have it corrected.
We assess all corrections before making them.
Refer to Evidence required for common changes and the evidence you’ll need to provide.
What you'll need
We'll ask you for the following.
Details of the person on the certificate
As a minimum, we ask for:
- Given name and family name
- Date and place of death.
The original death certificate
We ask you to return the original certificate before we can issue a new, corrected version.
Proof of identity
You can prove your identity by providing certified copies of documents.
You can:
- Upload them during your application, where you see the ‘Add documents’ icon
- Upload them after submitting your application
- Post them to us after submitting your application.
Learn more about Identity verification using certified copies of documents.
Identity verification using certified copies of documents
To prove your identity using certified copies of documents you must provide either:
- Two different documents from Category 1, or
- Three documents, each from a different category. (For example: Australian driver licence, Medicare card and recent bank statement.)
You can upload scans or digital photos, but they must be correctly certified by an authorised person.
Evidence required
The evidence we ask for depends on the correction you want to make.
For documents in a language other than English, provide an English translation by a qualified translator. Learn more about translated documents.
The evidence listed below covers most common correction requests. If you can't provide the evidence listed, send the best evidence you have available.
We will let you know if we need more evidence.
| Correction | Acceptable evidence |
|---|---|
| Any name or age on the certificate | One of the following documents, showing the name that needs to be corrected:
|
| Date, place or cause of death | Evidence of correct information from:
It may be in the form of:
|
| Date or place of marriage | Marriage certificate (interstate or overseas marriage). |
| Relationship status (married or divorced) | One of the following:
|
| Relationship status and/or name of domestic (de facto) partner | The Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Regulations 2019(opens in a new window) define 'domestic relationship'. For a death record, a domestic relationship includes both:
To add the name of a domestic partner, you must provide evidence that at the time of death:
Examples of acceptable evidence to add the name of a domestic partner include:
What happens next
After 28 days, the Registrar will decide whether to make the correction. If you or the informant are not happy with the Registrar’s decisionYou can ask the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal(opens in a new window) to review the decision. You must do so within 28 days of the Registrar making their decision. |
| Children not listed on certificate | One of the following:
|
How long will it take to get my certificate?
When you apply, we email you details of documents you need to provide. Our processing times start when we receive all required documents.
If you didn't receive an email after applying, contact us.
| Type of application | Processing time |
|---|---|
| Correction to a certificate | Up to 28 days (4 weeks) |
Allow extra time for public holidays and postage
Certificate fees and postage
The fees are non-refundable except as set out in our Refunds page. A fee waiver may be available in certain circumstances of financial hardship.
Certificate fees
| Whereabouts of original certificate | Price |
|---|---|
| If you return the original death certificate | $0.00 |
| If you do not return the original death certificate package | $93.30 |
| If you do not return the original death certificate | $57.50 |
Postage fees are additional.
Postage fees
We send legal certificates by express post, for security
| Postage and handling method | Price |
|---|---|
| Express post (within Australia) | $10.40 |
| Express post (International) | $57.10 |
Payment methods
Pay via credit/debit card or BPAY.
After you've submitted your application
You'll receive an email after you've submitted your application.
If you didn't receive an email after applying, first check your spam inbox. If you still don't have the email, read about common causes of delay.
Once we have everything we need, we complete your application within processing timeframes and email to let you know when we've posted your certificate.
Updated