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Order a Québec birth certificate from abroad, apostilled and shipped once
The Directeur de l’état civil only mails abroad by regular post, and a foreign authority almost always wants the long version with an apostille on it. Ordered the usual way, your record crosses the ocean twice before it is usable. Ordered through us, it comes to our Laval office, is checked, apostilled in Montréal and sent to you once, by tracked courier.
Certificate or copy of act: the choice that decides whether it is accepted
Québec issues two versions of every birth, marriage and death record. They are not interchangeable abroad.
Copy of act (copie d’acte)
- A full reproduction of the record, including the parents’ names and every later annotation
- What Spain, Italy, France, Portugal and most Latin American registries ask for, especially for citizenship, marriage and civil registration
- The version we order by default for any foreign use, unless your file says otherwise
Certificate (certificat)
- A short extract with the essential facts only
- Fine for many uses inside Canada
- The most common reason a Québec record is refused abroad: the receiving office wanted the parents’ names and the full record
From abroad, the route matters more than the order form
1. Order it yourself, have it mailed abroad
Possible online or by mail. The Directeur de l’état civil only offers Xpresspost to Canadian addresses, so the record travels by regular international mail. You then mail the original back to Canada for the apostille, and it travels a third time to come home. Cheapest on paper, slowest in practice.
2. Order it to our office (what most clients choose)
You order it with our office as the delivery address, or authorize us to order it for you. It arrives in Laval, we check it is the right version with the right names, file it in person at the Ministère de la Justice in Montréal, scan it to you the day it comes back, and ship the original once, by DHL Express.
3. You already have a recent copy of act
Send it to us by tracked courier, or have a relative in Canada drop it off. We inspect it before anything is filed. If it is the short certificate or an old version, we tell you before you pay a government fee for nothing.
Your own record, your child’s, or a relative’s: what the rules allow
What is possible
- Your own birth, marriage or death record, or one where you are named (for example your child’s birth record, as a parent)
- A record for someone else, when you can show an interest the Directeur de l’état civil accepts, such as an estate or a citizenship file built on a parent’s record
- Ordering through us with your written authorization, so it ships to our office
- Accelerated service: about 3 business days at the Directeur de l’état civil instead of about 10
What is not
- A record of an event that happened outside Québec: Ontario, B.C. and every other province keep their own registry (we order those too, see document retrieval)
- Skipping the government queue beyond the accelerated service: nobody can buy that, and we do not pretend to
- A very recent event that is not registered yet: the record has to exist before it can be copied
- Changing anything on the record while ordering it: that is a separate procedure, see correcting a Québec record
Government fees at cost, our fees published
Directeur de l’état civil fees in force until March 31, 2027, as published on its site. We pay them for you and pass them through with the receipt.
| Directeur de l’état civil | Online | By mail |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate, regular (about 10 business days) | $38.50 | $55.00 |
| Copy of act, regular (about 10 business days) | $46.75 | $64.25 |
| Either version, accelerated (about 3 business days) | $75.00 | $82.25 |
Québec birth record for a citizenship file in Spain, client in Madrid
- Document retrieval
- $69
- Copy of act, accelerated (DEC)
- $75
- Standard apostille
- $149
- Ministère de la Justice fee
- $66.50
- Original to Spain, DHL Express
- $140
- Total, shipping included
- $499.50
Need a sworn Spanish translation too? Add $60 per page, see sworn translation for Spain.
Parents’ marriage record and your birth record, same file
- Document retrieval, two records
- $69 + $69
- Two copies of act, regular (DEC)
- $93.50
- Standard apostille, first + additional
- $149 + $39
- Ministère de la Justice, two documents
- $133
- Originals to Canada, Xpresspost
- $30
- Total, shipping included
- $582.50
Retrieval is from $69 per record; a record that needs research (old parish era, name variants) is quoted before we start.
Every line appears in your written quote before you commit. Full grid on the pricing page.
How long it really takes, door to door
- Directeur de l’état civil: about 3 business days accelerated, about 10 regular, plus delivery to our office in Laval.
- Inspection the day it arrives: right version, right names, nothing that would be refused. Scan sent to you.
- Ministère de la Justice, Montréal: filed in person by our team. Its queue sets the pace, about 10 business days on a normal week; urgent service is requested whenever your deadline justifies it.
- Shipping once: DHL Express to most countries in 2 to 5 business days, tracking emailed the day it leaves.
Can I order a Québec birth certificate online from outside Canada?
Do I need the certificate or the copy of act for an apostille?
Can Viapostille order the record for me?
How long is a Québec copy of act valid abroad?
My name or my parents’ names are wrong on the record. Can you fix that while ordering it?
“I highly recommend Viapostille. Their team was professional, attentive…”
“Excellent service. Fast, reactive, communicative.”
“Very prompt and professional. With thorough follow up!”
Tell us where the record is going, we order the right one
Send the name on the record, the event and the destination country. We confirm the version the receiving office wants, the fastest lawful route and a fixed all-in price, in writing, within one business day.
Free pre-check