A certified copy of a San Francisco County death certificate can be obtained in several ways, as detailed below. If you have any questions, please email [email protected] or call +1 (415) 655-9455.

Important things to know about San Francisco County death certificates

Prior to placing an order for a death certificate for apostille purposes, please note:

• Certified copy: Informational death certificates that bear a disclaimer—such as “INFORMATIONAL, NOT A VALID DOCUMENT TO ESTABLISH IDENTITY”—are not eligible for California Secretary of State apostille certification. You must obtain a certified copy of the death certificate.
• Eligibility: You are only allowed to pick up a certified copy of a death certificate for your child, legal ward (with documentation), spouse, parent, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, state-registered domestic partner, or a relative to whom you are the surviving next of kin. Additional roles that are allowed to obtain a certified copy of a death certificate include an agent or employee of a funeral home, anyone with a court order, anyone who has power of attorney (with a certified copy of the POA), the executor of the estate (with supporting documentation), an authorized attorney (with supporting documentation), an adoption agency (with an order of relinquishment), and an employee of a different government agency (with ID) who is conducting official business.
• Office in charge: Certified copies of death certificates for passings that occurred more than three years ago are processed by the San Francisco County Clerk. Certified copies of death certificates for passings that occurred within the last three years are processed by the Department of Public Health. How this affects your ordering process will depend on your method of retrieval. See below for details.
• Recent death: Death records may take some time to be filed by the coroner. For a death that occurred within the last couple of months, call the Office of Vital Records at +1 (415) 554-2700 to confirm that the death certificate is in the computer system.

Fastest: Obtain the certified copy of the death certificate in person

The fastest way to obtain a certified copy of a San Francisco death certificate is to pick it up in person. As noted above, certified copies of death certificates for passings that occurred more than three years ago are processed by the County Clerk, while certified copies of death certificates for passings that occurred within the last three years are processed by the Department of Public Health (DPH). However, as of October 2025, all in-person requests are being handled at the County Clerk’s Office at City Hall (1 Dr Carlton B Goodlett Place, Room 160).

The form for both agencies is identical except the payee name and the delivery address. If you’re filling out the Application for Certified Copy of Death Record in advance, be sure to use the correct version. If the passing occurred more than three years ago, use the County Clerk version of the application. If the passing occurred within the past three years, use the DPH version of the application.

When filling in the form, be careful to choose Certified Copy, not Certified Informational Copy.

Whichever form you use, bring it in person to the County Clerk’s office, not the Vital Records office on Grove Street. The clerk can also give you a paper copy of the correct version to fill in when you get there.

In case you are unable to pick up the certificate in person, we can obtain the certified copy for you. You will need appear before a notary either in person or through remote online notarization to sign a limited power of attorney that gives us authority to retrieve the death certificate. We can help to arrange an electronic notarization—please contact us to discuss.

Once we receive the notarized power of attorney (via mail for in-person notarization or via certified PDF for an electronic notarization), our authorized agent will travel to the relevant county office to retrieve the certified copy of the death certificate.

Medium: Order online

You can now place an online order for a certified copy of the San Francisco County death certificate directly from the County Clerk for in-person pickup only. The current turnaround time is 4 to 6 weeks. Since you have to go to City Hall to pick up your document either way, we recommend just using the in-person method above. We simply wanted to present this as an option that is available to you.

You can also place an online order for a certified copy of the San Francisco County death certificate through a California-approved third-party vendor such as VitalChek, State Vital Records, Vital Records Online, or GoCertificates.You can choose to have it delivered directly to us:

C/O SF Notary + Apostille Sacramento
2511 Carlsbad Ave.
Sacramento, CA 95821

Please note: Some third-party processors are quoting up to nine weeks or more to deliver your certified copy. If you cannot wait that long, choose the in-person option instead.

Slowest: Order through the mail

Option 1: Order the death certificate from San Francisco County

You can order a certified copy of a death certificate by mail from the County of San Francisco. As noted above, the County Clerk issues certified copies for passings that occurred more than three years ago, while the Department of Public Health issues certified copies for passings that occurred within the last three years. The form for both agencies is identical except the payee name and the delivery address. Be sure to use the correct form and send it to the correct issuing office to avoid delays.

In both cases, you will need to sign the form before a local notary or an online notary and then mail the form and a check or money order to the issuing agency.

Please be sure to complete all fields in the application when applying by mail. Also, be careful to choose Certified Copy, not Certified Informational Copy.

You can have the San Francisco County death certificate shipped directly to us by adding our information in the third-party recipient fields on the application.

SF Notary + Apostille
2511 Carlsbad Ave.
Sacramento, CA 95821

Option 2: Order the death certificate from the State of California

You can also order a certified copy of a death certificate by mail from the California Department of Public Health – Vital Records. Again, you will need to sign the form before a local notary or an online notary and then mail the form and a check or money order to the issuing agency.

Please be sure to complete all fields in the application when applying by mail. Also, be careful to order an AUTHORIZED COPY, not an INFORMATIONAL COPY.

You can have your San Francisco County death certificate shipped directly to us by adding our information in the address field on the application.

C/O SF Notary + Apostille, 2511 Carlsbad Ave.
95821 Sacramento CA USA

Please note: Government agencies can take several weeks to deliver your certified copy. If time is a concern, choose the in-person option instead.

Contact us before you ship the certified copy

Whichever option you select for ordering a certified copy of a death certificate, please email [email protected] with the following information before sending the certificate to us:

• Your name, telephone number, and current physical location
• The name, address, telephone number, and email address of the person to whom we will ship the apostilled death certificate
• The destination country (e.g. France)
• The physical location of the death certificate or ordering status if you ordered one

The instructions on this page only apply to San Francisco County death certificates. If you need a death certificate from another county that is not San Francisco, please visit the website that county for instructions. Each county uses different forms and employs different processes.

If you have any questions, please email [email protected] or call +1 (415) 655-9455.

Disclaimer: Information on this website is for informational purposes only. These instructions are based on our knowledge and experience and are meant to be helpful; however, they might contain errors. Please let us know if you encounter mistakes so that we can promptly correct them. SF Notary + Apostille is not a law firm, and its agents are not attorneys. Please contact a licensed attorney or your local bar association for counsel on legal matters.