Dying in Mexico

[Talleyho69]

Yeah, I know, what a topic, but it needs to be out there.

In years past we were always told that in a decent sized caravan to Mexico, there would be at least one death. Tequila, what do you say??

We have recently found out that in order to have a spouses remains released to you in Mexico, you need to have a marriage license/certificate on hand. Not only that, it needs to be an apostille copy. These take a bit of work to get, and are issued through the Secretary of State in the state where you were married, in most cases.

We decided that since we have to get apostille birth certificates and marriage certificate to apply for citizenship, it made sense to have a second apostille marriage certificate for when one of us passes.

If nothing else, it will make a difficult time a bit less stressful.

[Talleyho69]

Lwiddis wrote:
Is OP saying a certified copy of a death certificate or birth certificate issued by a California county will not be honored by Mexico? The only birth certificates issued by the State of California are for adopted children. Otherwise the counties issue these documents.

Again, it depends upon what you are trying to do. I don't see why anyone would need a death certificate from the US here. Birth certificates are issued, in most cases, by counties, but only the state does the apostille. Here in Mexico they want things apostilled. For residency purposes, if you do your application in the US, they will take a birth certificate that is not apostilled. If, however, you do it here in Mexico, it must be apostilled.

In our cases, the birth certificates that we used to get our passports with 50 years ago were considered to be too old by California and Oregon, so we had to get more current birth certificates from the counties then send them to the state.

We are fortunate that we have the time for this. We have found how easy it is to get a US notarization on line and free on line FAX services too.

[navegator]

In order for a birth certificate, marriage certificate or death certificate from any state (USA) or province (Canada) or any document from any country that belongs to the treaty and (I do not recal the name) for them to be accepted as legitimate need to have the correct apostille stamps, when dealing with these types of documents try to have a family or friend in the US or Canada or other country ship the documents via FedEx, UPS, or DHL the Mexican postal service is not reliable, I have teceived lettets that were sent at the end of October and they arrived in late April, specially when time is of the esence but in order to be a little prepared bring certified copys of birth certificates and mariages or better apostilled, specially if you travel in South America.

navegator

[Talleyho69]

That is a great thing to hear. Supposedly, and we know how that works in ANY country, things are very official.

So glad that things worked out the way they were "supposed" to happen. May they continue.

[qtla9111]

My brother died in Playa del Carmen four years ago. I was in Ecuador and she sent me the police report to translate. They offered to do an autopsy but that would require keeping the body for a couple of weeks. My SIL opted for cremation and was back in Idaho with his ashes three days later. No problems.

I believe authorities are sympathetic to foreigners and Mexico has or had good relations with the U.S.

[Talleyho69]

That was exactly what we had decided while we still lived in the US and traveled down here regularly.

Now? Cremation and into the ocean! At least with our apostille marriage certificate, if we don't go together in a firey crash, the other can take care of things.

[valhalla360]

Ehhh...leave my body for the local authorities to take care of, if they want to make it difficult. Saves the cost of a funeral and burial. It's not like I have a use for the body when I'm gone.

And no, I'm only partly joking. It's silly to pay $5-10k to ship a body back. If it's cheap, I might do cremation and return the ashes in a carry on.

[Lwiddis]

Is OP saying a certified copy of a death certificate or birth certificate issued by a California county will not be honored by Mexico? The only birth certificates issued by the State of California are for adopted children. Otherwise the counties issue these documents.

[Talleyho69]

It just depends. Read the fine print as to where the use may be needed.

[sdickbos]

Do you just need the apostille or do you need the translation also? Thanks

[qtla9111]

To obtain my Mexican pension I needed an apostille. I had one but after 38 years they wouldn't accept it. I called the state of Missouri and they had it to me in less than 10 days via U.S. mail (sent to my Mexican mailbox in Texas).

The translation was even quicker and cost 1700 pesos from a licensed and registered translator.