As of 01.07.2019, the health care provider, i.e. the doctor, will prepare the death certificate electronically instead of a paper document, transmit the information about the death to the Population Register and the death will be automatically registered there. The next of kin of the deceased do not generally need to register the death with the civil status office (local authority). The initial death certificate is issued by the healthcare provider. A death certificate is required for the burial arrangements.
Exceptionally, the death is registered with the Estonian civil status office (in a county centre municipality, In Tallinn, at the Civil Status Office). These situations are:
- a person died in Estonia, but the health worker did not forward the details of the death to the civil register and gave a paper death certificate to the next of kin;
- the person died in a foreign country and his/her last place of residence was in Estonia or he/she had Estonian citizenship (NB: The death must not have been registered in a foreign country).
In this exceptional case, the application may be submitted to any of the following. the local authority of the regional centre (Tallinn Civil Status Office) within seven days of the person's death or the knowledge of the death. The death is registered by the family register within three working days of receipt of the application.
To register a death, you must submit:
- declaration of death;
- a medical death certificate;
- the identity document of the applicant.
There is no fee for registering a death.
If the person died abroad but the death was not registered there., documents must be submitted in Estonian, Russian or English to register the death. If the documents have been translated, the translation must be made by a sworn translator. A foreign document required for the registration of death, such as a medical certificate, must be legalised or certified by apostille, unless an international agreement provides otherwise.
If the death is registered abroad, it does not need to be re-registered in Estonia, but it must be submitted to. the local authority of the regional centre (in Tallinn to the civil status officeThe document must be in Estonian, Russian or English, or translated into these languages, and apostilled/legalised, unless an international agreement provides otherwise.
Proof of death is issued by free of charge for a primary death certificate. If the data are automatically transferred from the doctor to the civil register, the primary death certificate is issued by the medical authority. If the death is registered at the civil status office, the primary certificate is issued there.
