Death certificates in China for foreign nationals

1. Use the post-1 July 2026 name and legal scope

The national notice calls the current document 居民死亡医学证明, the Resident Medical Certificate of Death. It is a medical institution's record of death and cause and is an important document for population administration and funeral procedures. The scope provision expressly includes mainland residents, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan residents who die in the mainland, and foreign and stateless people who die there. A foreign national is therefore not excluded because the Chinese title contains the word 'resident.'

When reading a hospital, police, funeral-home or city page, check its publication date. If it refers to the former Resident Medical Certificate of Death (Inference), map the workflow to the new document only after confirming that the issuer and materials remain consistent with the 2026 notice. Do not alter an old source quotation, but explain the transition to the reader. The national notice expressly says the 2013 death-certificate notice and the 2014 trial death-information rules ceased to operate on 1 July 2026.

For current nationwide content, use Resident Medical Certificate of Death—not the former national inferred-death certificate title.

2. Confirm the identity fields before the certificate is sealed

A medical institution ordinarily uses the Chinese citizen identity number as the certificate code. Where the deceased has no Chinese citizen identity number, the national rule permits a passport or another lawful valid document number. Provide the passport used for the deceased's stay, treatment and other Chinese records where available. Ask the issuer to check full name, nationality, sex, date of birth, identity-document type and number, date and place of death before final sealing.

Foreign names are vulnerable to reversed order, omitted middle names, spacing changes and inconsistent transliteration. Compare the draft or data-entry screen with the passport, hospital patient file and any police record. Do not ask staff to use a convenient English nickname. If the passport is unavailable, identity is uncertain or several records conflict, tell the issuer and public security rather than choosing a version yourself. The national rules provide a code route for a person with no lawful valid identity document, but an unidentified or suspected foreign-national case may require police verification.

3. Identify the correct applicant or authorized representative

The national notice defines the ordinary applicant as a close relative: spouse, parents, children, siblings, grandparents or grandchildren. The application requires valid identity documents for the deceased and close relative. The issuing institution may need additional evidence to connect names where foreign family documents use a different script or where the relationship is not apparent. Ask for its minimum document list and translation approach before sending original civil-status documents.

If the close relative cannot attend, the rules permit delegation to another lawful guardian or other person. The representative provides the deceased's and close relative's valid identity documents, a Resident Medical Certificate of Death authorization signed by the close relative, and the representative's valid identity document. If there is no close relative, a guardian, responsible individual, unit or organization may apply. Where none exists, a civil-affairs service institution, residents' or villagers' committee or another relevant organization specified by the notice may act.

• Ordinary route: close relative applies
• Delegated route: signed authorization plus all required identities
• No-relative route: lawful guardian or responsible unit or organization
• No-relative and no-guardian route: specified service or community organization

4. For a hospital or en-route normal death, use the treating institution

Where a person dies normally during treatment in a medical or health institution, the institution responsible for treatment issues the certificate. The same allocation covers a normal death while being taken to the institution and a responding doctor reaching the scene after the person has already died. A prehospital emergency institution can therefore be the responsible issuer where it provided the relevant response. The responsible treating licensed physician or assistant physician completes the document.

This route does not mean that any nearby hospital must certify a person it did not treat, attend or investigate. Ask which institution owns the clinical episode and death record. A death resulting from an accident, violence or another event may involve both medical records and public-security investigation, especially where the person received treatment before death. The national police-proof paragraph excludes cases treated by a medical institution from its simple police-station route, so the hospital and case-handling police should state their respective documents rather than the family demanding only one.

5. For a normal death at home or elsewhere, use the death-location health institution

For a normal death in a home, hotel, apartment, care setting or another place outside a medical institution, the township health centre, community health service centre or equivalent medical institution at the place of death investigates the cause and issues the certificate. The family or responsible organization supplies the national declaration form. The application also needs relevant medical history or case or incident evidence and the close relative's signed declaration. The investigator must be a licensed or assistant physician.

Do not take an old rule saying 'go to a county-level hospital' as the current national answer. Nor should a family move the body to a hospital registration desk merely to create an issuer. Contact the health institution responsible for the location and describe the facts accurately. If there is no reliable history, the circumstances are unclear or the institution suspects a non-normal event, it may need coordination with public security. One-day issuance is not promised until a normal cause is clear.

The current nationwide normal home-death route is based on the place of death and an investigation, not an automatic county-level-hospital visit.

6. Understand when police issue non-normal death proof

For a non-normal death event lawfully handled by public security, excluding a case treated by a medical institution, the police station at the incident location issues non-normal death proof based on the investigation and examination or appraisal results. This proof is not the same as the medical certificate issued for a normal death. The words 'excluding cases treated by a medical institution' should appear in public guidance because they prevent an overbroad claim that police are always the sole certificate issuer after an accident.

Call 110 where crime, suicide, violence, accident, poisoning, unknown cause, uncertain identity or another non-natural circumstance is suspected. Preserve the scene and obtain the case reference. Public security determines whether forensic examination, appraisal or autopsy is needed and when the body can be released. A family cannot convert an unresolved death into a normal medical route by signing a declaration. Equally, not every sudden death is automatically non-normal; the competent medical and police authorities determine the path from the evidence.

7. Apply the one-day rule narrowly and accurately

The national notice says that for a normal death whose cause is already clear, the medical institution should issue the certificate within one day after the death occurs or after the close relative reports it. This is a meaningful service standard, but its conditions matter. It does not impose one-day completion where identity is unresolved, the cause is unclear, records must be investigated, public security is involved, an appraisal is pending or the applicant has not supplied the required identity, authorization and declaration materials.

Record when the close relative made a complete report, which materials the institution accepted and what issue remains open. Ask for a written or traceable request for missing items rather than relying on a broker's promise. Do not calculate a universal '24-hour deadline' from discovery of the body for every case. Where the certificate is delayed, ask the issuing institution or health authority whether the case is waiting on cause-of-death investigation, identity verification, police coordination or an incomplete application.

One day applies to a clear normal death. It is not a nationwide guarantee for an unclear or investigated case.

8. Know what the paper copies and electronic credential do

The national notice gives the paper certificate and electronic credential equal legal effect. For funeral procedures, the family presents the fourth paper copy or the electronic credential to the funeral home, which uses it for pickup and cremation processing. The first paper copy remains with the issuing institution, while other copies serve the defined public-security and family records. For a foreign national, the Chinese household-cancellation copy route does not become a household-registration obligation; the relevant immigration step is the separate foreigner death declaration.

Do not promise that an electronic certificate is immediately available everywhere. The same notice says localities should progressively achieve synchronized paper and electronic issue from 1 January 2027 and recognizes that some institutions do not yet have electronic-issue capability. Ask the issuer what it can provide now, how the family accesses an electronic credential if one exists, whether the funeral home can retrieve it and which paper original the family should retain. A screenshot of an app page is not automatically an official electronic credential.

9. Correct, reissue or replace the certificate through the original issuer

If there is evidence that the death time, cause or basic identity information is wrong, the applicant may ask the original issuer to verify and reissue the certificate once. The national notice requires the relevant identity, medical record, household or other supporting evidence and the original certificate; the original is cancelled when the replacement is issued. For a foreign national, ask what passport, hospital record, police record, translation or consular identity evidence the issuer needs. Do not erase, annotate or privately amend a sealed certificate.

If the paper certificate is lost, the original applicant may request one replacement from the original issuer using valid identity. Another close relative needs the original applicant's authorization. The copies reissued depend on whether funeral and other procedures have already been completed. Keep a custody record for the replacement and notify any organization that received the cancelled version. Notarization or translation does not correct the underlying Chinese certificate; an error must be addressed with the issuer first.

10. Separate Chinese use, immigration use and foreign use

The medical certificate supports official funeral-home pickup and cremation. It is also the death proof presented to exit-entry administration when the family, guardian or agent reports a foreign national's death and cancels a stay or residence document. A city may request another local document for international body transport, but that does not create a national Foreigner's Death Certificate or replace the medical certificate for every purpose. Ask each receiving office which original or copy it needs and obtain a receipt before surrendering anything.

For overseas insurance, civil registration, probate, pension or bank use, ask the foreign recipient about translation, notarization, certified copies, apostille or consular legalization. China does not require hospitals nationwide to issue the certificate in English, and the national notice gives no universal expiry period. A document sent to a Hague Apostille Convention state follows the apostille route where required; a non-party destination may require legalization. An apostille verifies the signature or seal, not the medical content or foreign legal effect.