How to Order a Quebec Birth Certificate for CIT 0001

Ordering a Quebec birth certificate sounds simple until you discover that the Directeur de l'état civil sells two products that look nearly identical but serve different purposes. IRCC accepts one for a citizenship by descent application and not the other. Ordering the wrong version means restarting from scratch.

The product you need is the copy of an act of birth (copie d'acte de naissance). The one to avoid is the standard birth certificate (certificat de naissance). Both come from the same government office, but only the copy of an act reproduces the full registration entry with both parents' full names as originally recorded. IRCC uses parental information to verify every generational link in your ancestry chain. The shorter certificate does not reliably include that detail in a format IRCC can act on.

Quebec's civil registrar, the Directeur de l'état civil (DEC), defines the difference clearly: a certificate summarizes key information from the act, while a copy of an act reproduces the full original registration. The copy of an act of birth includes:

• The registrant's full name and date of birth
• The municipality of birth in Quebec
• The father's full name and his place of birth
• The mother's full maiden name and her place of birth
• The registration number and date

A standard birth certificate includes the registrant's name and birth date but may omit or abbreviate parental details. For a CIT 0001 citizenship by descent application, the parental fields are what IRCC officers use to trace your ancestry chain. Order the copy of an act.

DEC does not issue copies of civil status acts to everyone. Under Quebec's Civil Code, a certificate or copy of an act can be issued only to the person named in the act or to someone who can establish a legitimate interest in the document.

If you are ordering your own Quebec birth certificate, you qualify as the named person. Most citizenship by descent applicants, however, are ordering a parent's, grandparent's, or great-grandparent's record. That means establishing legitimate interest.

To establish interest for a mail-in application, include documents connecting you to the named person:

• Your own birth certificate
• Your parent's birth certificate (if ordering a grandparent's record, include each generational link)
• Proof of death for the ancestor, if available (a death certificate or obituary)

Third-party requests cannot go through DEClic!, DEC's online portal. They must be submitted by mail.

New fees took effect April 1, 2026:

Payment by mail requires a bank draft or money order payable to the Minister of Finance (Quebec) in Canadian dollars. Personal US cheques are not accepted. Most US banks can issue a CAD bank draft; credit unions often do this for a nominal fee.

The mail-in route works for any applicant, regardless of where you live, and is the practical path for most Americans ordering an ancestor's record.

1. Go to etatcivil.gouv.qc.ca and download the DCCA-Birth form from the Forms and Publications section
2. Fill in the ancestor's full name, approximate date of birth, and the Quebec municipality or region of birth
3. Under document type, select copie d'acte de naissance (copy of an act of birth)
4. Indicate your relationship to the named person (grandchild, great-grandchild, etc.)
5. Attach your relationship documents: your birth certificate, your parent's birth certificate, and proof of the ancestor's death if applicable
6. Include a bank draft or money order in CAD for the applicable fee
7. Mail the complete package to: Directeur de l'état civil, 2535 Laurier Blvd., Quebec City, QC G1V 5C6

Processing runs 10 business days from the date DEC receives a complete package. Add one to two weeks for mail transit to a US address. If your timeline is tight, include the accelerated fee and write "ACCELERATED" clearly on the envelope and form.

DEClic! is DEC's online portal for ordering certificates and copies of acts. As of January 2026, logging in requires a Quebec Government Authentication Service account. Setting up that account typically requires a Quebec provincial tax return on file. Most applicants outside Quebec will not have one, which means DEClic! is not a practical option for ordering an ancestor's record. The mail-in form is the standard route for Americans and anyone else ordering on behalf of a deceased relative.

Civil registration in Quebec began in 1926. If your ancestor was born before that date, DEC does not hold the record. Quebec births before 1926 were recorded in Catholic Church parish registers, which are now held by BAnQ, the Bibliotheque et Archives nationales du Quebec. The Quebec baptismal records guide covers the BAnQ process in full, including what certified extracts look like and how to order them.

For ancestors born between 1926 and 1994, the records exist in civil registers originally held at the regional courthouse level. Quebec centralized all of these into the DEC in 1994. The DEC holds them now and you order through the same DCCA-Birth form.

The copy of an act DEC mails you is printed on official Quebec security paper with the DEC seal and a certifying statement. The document is in French. IRCC accepts French documents without translation. Canada is bilingual, and IRCC offices process French Quebec records routinely.

When your copy of an act arrives, check these fields before filing it in your CIT 0001 package:

• Registrant name matches other documents in your chain
• Both parents' names are present and legible
• The Quebec municipality of birth is listed
• The DEC seal or certification stamp is visible

Take a clear colour scan of the document and keep it before mailing the original to IRCC's Case Processing Centre in Sydney, Nova Scotia. IRCC requires the original document, not a photocopy, but having a digital backup protects you if mail is lost.

Maria in New York needed her grandfather's Quebec birth certificate. He was born in Trois-Rivieres in 1938 and died in 1991. She downloaded the DCCA-Birth form, attached her own birth certificate and her father's birth certificate to establish the generational chain, and included a copy of her grandfather's death certificate. She sent a bank draft for $64.25 CAD and mailed the package to Quebec City. Her copy of an act arrived 14 business days later. The document showed both of her grandfather's parents' names, their birthplaces in Quebec, and his registration number. She scanned it in colour and included the original in her CIT 0001 application. IRCC accepted it without requesting additional documentation.

For where the Quebec birth certificate fits within your full CIT 0001 package, see the province-by-province birth certificate ordering guide. For a complete walkthrough of what happens from submission through approval, see what happens after you file the CIT 0001.

MaplePass builds a personalized document checklist for your ancestry chain, identifies which provincial office holds each record, and reviews your package before you mail it to IRCC. Eligibility check is free and takes two minutes; the full guided application is $199.