This is how long you can expect to wait for a death certificate in the state of Washington.

First, the Funeral Director needs to collect the vital statistics information from the next of kin or person helping make arrangements. This information includes name, social security number, date and place of birth, parents names, military and career affiliations and more. The sooner you can get this information to us, the faster we can begin the death record.

This can take as little as a few hours or a few days to get.

Once we have entered in all the data, we will print a Working Copy of the Death Certificate to proof read with next of kin or most responsible party. When they sign off on the proof, they have assured us there are no errors, and we can place the order....

IF the doctor has signed the death record. When the funeral home brings your person into their care, they will find out the name of the doctor, coroner, or medical examiner responsible for signing the record, as well as the pronounced time of death for the record, which may be different that the physical time of death. They immediately digitally assign this person to the death record. Once proofreading has been approved by the responsible party, and the death record has been filled in and electronically signed by the doctor/coroner/medical examiner, then the funeral director will give it a final authorization and send it electronically over to the county registrar.

The doctors have 5 business days to sign, but we are usually calling them sooner than that as a reminder that the family and disposition is waiting on them.

The county registrar, if in the office, will usually complete their end in 2 business days, and then the permits for burial or cremation can be secured.

It is at this point, the Certified Death Certificates can be ordered by the Funeral Director. We then have to email the order to the Registrar, then they will print the certified copies of the death certificates out and mail them to the funeral home for the family to pick up.

This process start to finish can take 7 to 14 business days, as there are many key individuals and steps involved.