Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa Message Board - Death in a foreign land

On January 9, her 75th birthday on our 20th visit, in our 54th year of marriage, the love of my life, Cathy Braun, passed away with me here in the condo in Ixtapa.

I am posting this in the hope that it may help some of the wonderful bulletin board community that have helped and entertained me with posts here.

My daughter arrived next day from Ottawa and my son stayed home in Winnipeg, both to help navigate bureaucracy in each country. I won’t bore you with too many details but I will say this:

Do not travel outside the country without LONG-FORM CERTIFICATES OF BIRTH AND MARRIAGE.

It has been incredibly difficult for my son to get those documents. Proof of death and proof of his relationship to Cathy are required before birth and marriage certificates can be issued in Manitoba. Death certificates cannot be issued in Mexico until apostilled birth and marriage certificates are presented. Yes, that is a catch-22. But my children have been resourceful, friends both here and back home have been incredibly supportive and politicians have helped to cut red tape.

We expect to be able to return home two weeks after her death.

Be forewarned and forearm yourselves.

Stuart Braun

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Stuart, I cannot imagine your grief at the loss of your beloved Cathy. I can only send you heartfelt love and strength.

And I also send you my gratitude for the useful information you shared to help other travelers possibly avoid some of the bureaucratic hassle you and your family have had to deal with should they find themselves in similar circumstances.

My wife and I keep such documents accessible by cloud services.

Please let me know if there is any way I can be of assistance. My resources are at your disposal.

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Thank you Rob for you offer of help.

There are differences country-to-country I am sure, but in my case, Canada and Mexico, I have to present original long form documents, affixed with an official seal of Manitoba Vital Statistics and have the documents appostilled by a Canadian government official, in our case here in Acapulco in order to get an official death certificate and claim Cathy's remains. In addition of course to the police and coroner's reports by local authorities. Appostille in this case means an approved translation to Spanish by an authorized and recognized government official of Canada.

This appostille business is a recent thing for Canada which joined a number of other countries in agreeing to a formal, joint, agreed-upon process to deal with exactly this.