BI-1663 Certificate Following the Death of a Person

How does the BI-1663 Certificate Process Work?

  1. The BI-1663 certificate forms is available from all home affairs offices
  2. You must report a person’s death must to the correct people at Home Affairs
  3. When reporting a death, a Notification of Death or Still Birth Form BI-1663 must be completed
  4. Different people fill in different sections of the BI-1663 certificate
  5. A Death Report – Home Affairs issues a Form BI-1680 after registration of the death
  6. No burial can happen unless authorised by way of a burial order – Form BI-14
  7. Report deaths outside South Africa to the South African embassy nearest to where the person died

 

Death Certificate signifies Your Departure from this World

The government issues a death certificate. As an official document, just like a birth certificate announced your arrival into the world, your death certificate announces your departure from it.  It reveals what you died of, where you died as well as time of death.

BI-1663 CertificateIf a person happens to still be alive but has been fraudulently reported dead, it has to be reported as soon as possible to the nearest Home Affairs Department.

It is up to the family or the funeral undertaker to make sure that the Home Affairs offices are notified of deaths and that the deaths are registered.

When you think that you’re on the earth for 70, 80, 90 or 100 years, there has to be kind of ending, certainly for legal purposes. Some of these legal purposes are the settling of an estate and claiming life insurance among others.

Also, government officials may well need the death certificate to check out if some kind of foul play wasn’t part of death.

People are inclined to associate the death certificate with adults, but in fact a stillbirth will also require the usual process –

  • completion of form BI-1663 where a stillbirth occurred
  • seal the form needs for confidentiality
  • hand the the document the relative of the deceased as proof of registration of the death
  • the Regional Home Affairs office will record the information
  • after registration of the death, the form goes to the statistics department so that the data for coding and classification

 

Signatures Required for the BI-1663 certificate

Before issuing a certified death certificate, authorities will want either a doctor’s or the coroners signature. The reason for this is to validate the cause of death and to make sure of the identity of the deceased person.

Once the death certificate has been signed, then a burial or cremation permit will be issued. Cemeteries and crematoria want this form before they go ahead with disposing of the body.

There are different people who are responsible for filling in parts of the death certificate –

  • the medical practitioner
  • the person who reports the death
  • a home affairs official or if that isn’t possible, the SA Police
  • if death occurs outside South African borders, report the death to the nearest South African embassy. If burial is to take place within South Africa, the embassy will assist with the paperwork and arrangements with transporting the body back to South Africa.

 

Understand the Death Certificate Process

The death of a loved one is never an easy time in your life, but you can make it a lot more bearable for yourself by understanding the whole ‘applying for a death certificate’ process so you can get on with funeral planning and bring closure with other family affairs.

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All info was correct at time of publishing