Iranian Succession Certificate (Enhesar-e Verasat) for Overseas Heirs

The Iranian succession certificate (enhesar-e verasat) is the official certificate that identifies the recognized heirs of a deceased person and states their legal shares. Terms such as “inheritance certificate,” “heirship certificate” and “probate” are often used in English searches, but none is an exact substitute for every Iranian estate procedure.

The procedure changed materially under the Seventh Development Plan and its 2025 implementing regulation. The Civil Registration Organization must prepare the electronic certificate within twenty days after the death is registered, using available official family and judicial data, and notify identifiable heirs and interested persons. The certificate is not final immediately: an objection may be filed within ten days after notification, and a decision of the Civil Registration Dispute Resolution Board may itself be challenged in the competent court within the stated twenty-day period.

For a death recorded before implementation where no certificate was issued, an heir, interested person or competent authority may request issuance under the transitional rule. If the Civil Registration Organization has no data sufficient to issue a certificate, it must report that inability and the applicant may need to proceed before the competent court. Correction of an older certificate issued by a judicial authority also remains a court matter.

Overseas heirs should not assume that the electronic system resolves inconsistencies in foreign death records, names, dates, marriages, parentage, legal incapacity or official wills. A legal review should identify whether the problem is a simple record correction, an administrative objection or an underlying dispute requiring a final judicial decision.