As a notary, I celebrate several hundred civil marriages per year. Since 2011, I have married or civilly united thousands of couples with the help of my superb team.
After each civil marriage or civil union celebrated, I transmit, without delay, the declaration of civil marriage or civil union to the Director of Civil Status of Quebec (DEC). The latter records the declaration which will allow him to issue the copy of the marriage act or the marriage certificate. Since 2018, this registration deadline has continued to increase. This deadline is different from the processing times for a request for an act or certificate and postal deadlines.

This marriage certificate is sometimes awaited by the newlyweds for administrative procedures.
For several years now, I have observed an extension of the time required for the Director of Civil Status of Quebec to register declarations of civil marriages or civil unions.

Understand the deadlines of the Director of Civil Status

The Director of Civil Status of Quebec issues certificates or acts for life events such as:

• a birth
• a civil marriage
• a civil union
• a death.

For each of these events, forms must be sent to the DEC by:

• parents and the hospital for a birthhttps://web.archive.org/web/20190716000349mp_/http://www.etatcivil.gouv.qc.ca/en/processing-time.html
• the celebrant for a civil marriage or civil union
• the funeral services company and the hospital for a death

Once these forms are received by the DEC, employees must register the event in the Quebec Civil Status Register. As you will see in the rest of the article, this delay is constantly increasing. Once this registration has been made, parents, spouses or partners will receive an event registration confirmation notice by mail. This notice contains a code to order the procedure online. Then, once the order is made online, there is a processing time of 10 working days (normal processing) or 3 working days (expedited processing). You will then need to add the postal delays for sending to your home.

The waiting time to receive a certificate or a copy of an act is therefore calculated as follows: Waiting time to receive a certificate or a copy of an act = time for registration of an event by the Director of civil status + postal time to receive the event registration confirmation notice + processing time for your request for a certificate or copy of an act + postal time to receive the ordered document.

Increased delays since 2018

2018 was a pivotal year for the DEC. Indeed, all marriages celebrated since July 1, 2018 must have been published, for 20 days, on the website of the Director of Civil Status. Previously, publications had to be made at the place of the celebration and at the courthouse of the judicial district concerned.

In 2017, the time taken to register an event by the Registrar of Civil Status was approximately 15 working days, source WaybackMachine.
In 2018, the time taken to register an event by the Director of Civil Status was approximately 15 working days, source WaybackMachine.
It was precisely during this period that the DEC took charge of publishing notices of publication of civil marriages and civil unions.
In 2019, the time taken to register an event by the Registrar of Civil Status was approximately 30 to 40 working days, source WaybackMachine.
In 2019, the DEC even published a news item on its website to inform the population of its deadlines. The DEC then wrote “A return to normal in terms of processing times is planned for December 2019”. The return to normal, which is a period of approximately 15 working days, has still not taken place.
It was not possible to trace the 2020 page.
In 2021, the time taken to register an event by the Director of Civil Status was still around 30 to 40 working days, source WaybackMachine.
In 2022, the time taken to register an event by the Director of Civil Status was still around 30 to 40 working days, source WaybackMachine.
In 2023, the deadline for registering an event by the Director of Civil Status increases from 30 to 45 working days according to the information available on the DEC website!

A situation known to all

The situation regarding DEC deadlines for issuing documents to citizens is regularly covered by the media:

More than eight weeks of waiting for death certificates article published in LaPresse
Director of civil status: deadlines for issuing certificates are exploding article published in Le Journal de Montréal
The saga of Quebec death certificates published in Lesaffaires
The number of complaints filed against the DEC are also increasing, going from 377 in 2021/2022 to 774 in 2022/2023 as mentioned in the 2022/2023 Annual Management Report of the Ministry of Employment and Social Solidarity.

Improvements coming in 2024?

Let us hope that in 2024, the DEC will be able to face the challenges of recruiting office staff and administrative technicians. The DEC should also improve its technological tools. It is high time that the DEC meets reasonable deadlines to provide documents of important life events to citizens.