A birth, marriage or death that happens in the United States exists only in American records until it is entered in the Marshallese register as well. That second step is what later allows a child to obtain a passport, an heir to claim an estate, or a marriage to be recognised in the Marshall Islands.
The Marshall Islands has two consular offices in the United States, in Springdale and Washington, D.C. With more than one, the office that matters is the one whose district covers your state of residence — and that is not always the nearest.
Marshallese consular offices in the United States
Civil registration is filed at the office whose district covers your state, which then forwards it to the register in the Marshall Islands:
Districts are drawn by the Marshall Islands, not by distance, and they rarely follow a tidy line on the map. A file sent to the wrong post is returned rather than forwarded, so confirm which of the two covers you before you travel or post anything. Ask the office directly; a list of states on a third-party site is not authority for it.
What can usually be registered
- A birth. Whether the child acquires Marshallese nationality is a separate question decided by Marshallese law, not by the registration itself — ask the office before assuming either way.
- A marriage celebrated in the United States.
- A death of a Marshallese national in the United States.
- A divorce granted by a U.S. court, where the marriage is recorded in the Marshall Islands.
Documents normally involved
- The original U.S. certificate, or a certified copy from the state vital records office.
- That certificate certified for use abroad — see the apostille and legalisation page for the Marshall Islands, which explains which of the two routes applies.
- A translation into English or Marshallese, certified where the office requires it.
- Passports and identity documents of the Marshallese nationals involved.
- The marriage certificate of the parents, where a birth is being registered.
Worth knowing
Names cause more delay than missing papers. American records drop accents and reorder surnames, and consular offices generally need the discrepancy explained before they will act. Check that names and dates match across every document before you file.
Registering promptly is far easier than reconstructing a file years later, when the parents’ own documents may have expired.
Office names, addresses and telephone numbers on this page come from our directory, and the count above is taken from the same records as the listing. Procedural rules come from the authority itself — always confirm with the office that covers you. Apostille status checked against the HCCH official status table on 2026-10-05.