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Getting a certificate of life in the United States

If you are a Dutch national living in the United States and need to have a certificate of life drawn up or a pre-printed certificate of life signed and stamped, find out below what’s possible in your situation.

Attention: If you have been asked by the Social Insurance Bank (SVB) to provide proof of life, you can submit your proof of life via the SVB app. Read how to do this on page about proof of life for AOW pension.

Step 1 : Gather the documents that you need

You will need the following documents in order to have a certificate of life drawn up or signed and stamped:

  • A valid Dutch passport or Dutch identity card.
  • Proof of address. This can be proof of registration with your municipality, for example. If this is not available in your country, you can instead provide a bank statement or utility bill from the past month bearing your name and address, or a rental contract bearing your name and address.
  • Official proof of your civil status issued by a government body in the Netherlands or elsewhere. This can be your marriage certificate, your divorce certificate or your spouse's death certificate, for example. It cannot be a self-declaration or a document drawn up by a notary.
Attention: You may need to have foreign documents translated and legalised.

Step 2: Make an appointment

Below you will find where and how you can get a certificate of life:

You can have your pre-printed certificate signed and stamped or drawn up by the embassy in Washington D.C. or the consulate-general (CG) in Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, New York of San Francisco. Read what you need to do.

Embassy in Washington, consulate-general in Miami or San Francisco

Make an appointment via the online appointment system

CG in Atlanta

CG in Chicago

Send an email to make an appointment: chi-ca@minbuza.nl

CG in New York

Send an email to make an appointment: nyc-ca@minbuza.nl

You can have your certificate signed and stamped by a local notary. Check if you need (to make) an appointment.

Please note that a statement from a local notary is not always accepted by the pension authority without an apostille.

Step 3: Check whether you need to pay

You don't always need to pay for a certificate of life. Select where you want to have the certificate signed and stamped or drawn up to find out what applies in your situation:

  • You can have a pre-printed certificate of life signed and stamped for free at the embassy or consulate-general. 
  • Having the embassy or consulate-general draw up a certificate of life costs €30.

The local authorities charge you for signing and stamping a pre-printed certificate of life. Ask the authority in question how much this costs.

See the overview of consular fees in the United States for information on how you can pay.

Step 4: Receive the certificate

Select your situation to find out how long it will take before you receive the certificate and in what language you will receive the certificate.

  • Having a certificate of life signed and stamped by the embassy in Washington D.C. takes between 1 and 2 working days. Check when you can collect your document from the embassy. Or ask when you are there.
  • The consulates-general in Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, New York en San Francisco will sign and stamp the certificate while you wait.
  • If you want to have the local authorities sign and stamp the certificate, ask them how long it will take.

  • The embassy in Washington D.C. will take 1 to 2 working days to sign and stamp the certificate. Check when you can collect your document from the embassy. Or ask when you are there.
  • The consulates-general in Atlanta, Chicago, Miami, New York en San Francisco will draw up the certificate while you wait.

What language will the certificate be in?

You will receive a multilingual standard form in Dutch, English, French and German. 
If you need the certificate in another language, you will need to have it translated by a sworn translator. Ask the organisation requesting the certificate whether you need to have the certificate and/or the translation legalised.

Contact

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Also useful

What is a consular certificate?