How to order an NYC birth certificate online, by mail or in person

The three ways to order, compared

Every certified copy is $15. What changes is the processing fee, the wait, and what you have to send.

For most people, online is the way. No notary and no trip, and the city calls it the fastest service. Mail makes sense when you are ordering for a relative who has died (mail is the only way), when you are an attorney ordering for a client, or when the online check fails and you cannot fax your ID. In person is the one to book when you need the certificate fast and can get an appointment.

Fees: the city's fees and processing times page, checked October 2026.

How long each way really takes

The city's own pages do not agree on timing, so plan around the longest number you see:

• Online: the fees page says 2 to 3 weeks to process, up to 2 more weeks if it comes by regular mail, and 2 extra weeks for a long form or a birth from 1910 to 1919. 311 says about 2 weeks for a short form and 4 for a long form, plus 10 to 15 business days by first class mail.
• Premium mail: the fees page says about 2 to 3 weeks; 311 says 6 to 8 weeks to process, plus up to 2 weeks for delivery; the main records page says about 12 weeks for any order sent by mail.
• Standard mail: 8 to 12 weeks.
• In person: usually the same day for a short form, or a long form with a letter of exemplification, if you bring your original photo ID. Older records, records that are not yet electronic and original records from before an adoption are not issued the same day.

Who can order, and the ID you need

The Health Department only releases a birth certificate to:

• You, if you are named on it and 18 or older.
• A parent named on it.
• A legal guardian, with the original guardianship or custody court order.
• An attorney you authorize in writing, who sends the city's attorney protocol form with a notarized premium mail application. The premium form says attorneys should not use it, but the city's birth certificate page says to disregard that line.
• A nonprofit that serves minor children or developmentally disabled adults, with proof of its legal standing.

In general, nobody else can order a living person's certificate, including a spouse, sibling or grandparent. 311 says you may be allowed to order for someone with a mental disability or dementia, so call 311 before you apply in that case. An online order only goes through when your name is on the certificate or you are otherwise entitled to it.

Just had a baby? You do not need to order the first one: the city mails a free certificate to the parents listed about four weeks after the birth.

For someone who has died, close relatives order by mail only, on the city's application for a deceased person's birth certificate: a spouse or domestic partner, a parent, a child, sibling, grandchild or great grandchild, a niece or nephew, an aunt or uncle, or a grandniece or grandnephew. The application says a copy can always be issued to a parent. Send a copy of the death certificate (the original if the death happened outside New York City), a copy of your photo ID and the family tree the form asks for, showing how you are related. It costs $15 a copy plus the $7.50 processing fee, the application has to be notarized, and you automatically receive the long form with a letter of exemplification.

The ID you need

Online, you answer identity questions; if that check fails, you can fax a copy of your ID instead.

By mail or in person, one current photo ID with your signature, such as a driver's license or state ID card, a U.S. or foreign passport with your signature, IDNYC, an original naturalization certificate, a college ID with a current transcript, a job ID with a current pay stub, or a military ID if the certificate is yours. No photo ID? Send two proofs of address dated within the last 60 days, such as a utility or phone bill, official government mail, a lease or mortgage letter, or a medical bill, and the certificate will be mailed to that address. With neither, email nycdohvr@health.nyc.gov before you order. The full list is on the city's ordering page.

Ordering online through VitalChek

VitalChek is the only company the Health Department authorizes to take birth certificate orders online. The city warns that unauthorized vendors charge high fees for help getting a birth certificate, and 311 says other websites may charge more. To be sure you reach VitalChek, start from the city's birth certificate page and follow its link.

1. Open the city's birth certificate page and follow the link to VitalChek.
2. Choose the reason for your request carefully. It decides whether you get the short form or the long form. For anything going abroad, choose Apostille/Authentication, which brings the long form with a letter of exemplification.
3. Answer the identity questions. If the check fails, you can fax a copy of your ID.
4. Pay $15 a copy plus the $9.30 processing fee, by card or from a checking account. The name on the card has to match you or a parent named on the record. Regular mail costs nothing extra; UPS express is $21 more and speeds up only the delivery.

Expect about 2 to 3 weeks before it ships, plus up to 2 weeks in the mail, and about 2 weeks more for a long form or a 1910 to 1919 birth.

Ordering by mail: the application has to be notarized

The city has two mail applications for a living person's certificate, and both must be signed in front of a notary. Each one can request up to three copies.

What goes in the envelope:

• The application, completed and notarized. Leave it unsigned until you are in front of the notary.
• A legible copy of your current, signed photo ID.
• A personal check or money order for the exact amount, payable to the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. No cash and no starter checks. From abroad, an international money order issued by a U.S. bank, in U.S. dollars.

Mail it to the address printed on the form you used: both go to the Health Department at 125 Worth Street, Room 119, with different attention lines. First class mail is not tracked, so a tracked service is worth the few dollars. The city will not mail a certificate to an address marked “in care of.”

Death certificates work the same way: both of the city's mail forms must be notarized. See our NYC death certificate guide.

Ordering in person at 125 Worth Street

The Health Department's Office of Vital Records is at 125 Worth Street, Room 119, in Lower Manhattan. Use the entrance at 45 Lafayette Street.

• Appointment required. Every in person order needs one, booked online from the city's ordering page.
• Hours: Monday to Friday, 9am to 3:30pm.
• Which records: births from 1920 on, if your name is on the record. Older and other records are ordered online or by mail.
• Same day: usually, for a short form or a long form with a letter of exemplification. Older records, records that are not yet electronic and original records from before an adoption are not issued the same day, so the city asks you to order those online or by mail. A deceased person's certificate can only be ordered by mail.
• Bring: your original photo ID and a photocopy of it, and payment by card, check or money order, $15 a copy plus $2.75. Cash is not accepted. With only a photocopy or proofs of address, 311 says the certificate is mailed to you instead.
• At the kiosk, choose your reason. Apostille/Authentication gets you the long form with the letter.

The city takes orders online, by mail and in person, not by email. For questions, call 311, or 212 639 9675 from outside the city. If you cannot get an appointment before a real deadline, use the emergency route described above.

What it costs

What one copy really costs: $24.30 online by regular mail, $45.30 online with UPS express, $22.50 by premium mail plus postage and the notary, and $17.75 in person. Extra copies in the same order are $15 each.

Processing fees are never refunded, and there is no refund when the city cannot find the record and sends a Not Found statement instead. Sources: the fees page and the ordering page, which also covers the veteran's copy.

Short form or long form?

The short form is the one most people get. It shows your name, date and place of birth, sex and your parents' names, and the city says it can be used for most domestic purposes; its applications list a U.S. passport and a driver's license among the reasons that bring the short form.

The long form, sometimes called the vault copy, includes more information than the short form, and the city lists time of birth among the reasons to order it. It is the one foreign governments ask for: dual citizenship, an apostille, or a marriage, adoption or property purchase abroad.

Both cost the same. You do not pick a form directly; the reason you give on the order decides it. Apostille, dual citizenship or immigration, time of birth, and an international marriage or adoption all bring the long form, while a passport or a driver's license brings the short form. Only Apostille, called Apostille/Authentication online and at the kiosk, also brings the letter of exemplification. If you only need the long form, 311 says to write time of birth as your reason. A long form ordered online takes about 2 weeks longer.

Since 2019, NYC birth certificates have no raised seal. The city prints them on security paper instead, with its features described on the back.

When you also need the letter of exemplification

A letter of exemplification is a letter the Health Department issues with a long form certificate. It is what allows the New York County Clerk to authenticate the certificate, the step that has to happen before the New York Department of State will add an apostille. No letter, no apostille.

• You need it when the certificate is going abroad and the country, consulate or court there wants an apostille or authentication: dual citizenship, a marriage, residency or an adoption abroad, or property or an estate in another country.
• You do not need it for a U.S. passport, REAL ID, a driver's license, school or housing. A foreign consulate in New York counts as abroad: if it wants an apostille, you need the letter.
• How to get it: choose Apostille/Authentication as the reason online or at the kiosk, or select Apostille as the reason on the mail application. It comes with the long form, and the city lists no separate fee. We have found no way to add a letter to a certificate you already have, so ask for it in the same order.
• Then two more steps: the New York County Clerk at 60 Centre Street authenticates it for $3, whatever borough you were born in, and the New York Department of State adds the apostille for $10.

Every step, fee and timeline is in our birth certificate apostille guide, and the letter itself, including the Municipal Archives version, is explained in our letter of exemplification guide.

Born before 1910, or outside the five boroughs

Before 1910: the Municipal Archives

The Health Department's birth records start in 1910. Older New York City births, through 1909, are kept by the Municipal Archives, part of the Department of Records and Information Services. Its records reach back into the 1800s for Manhattan and Brooklyn, and to 1898 for the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island. Order online through the Archives, or by mail to 31 Chambers Street, Suite 103; if you cannot print the order form, 311 can mail you one. A plain certified copy is $18 when you supply the certificate number, or $25 if the Archives has to search, and it has no raised seal. For an apostille, add the Archives' letter of exemplification, $12, which carries a raised seal and a signature; the copy then comes with a raised seal too, which the Archives' 2026 mail order form prices at $23. An online order has to choose mail delivery for the seal and signature to reach you.

Born elsewhere in New York State

The NYC Health Department only covers the five boroughs, so a birth in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester or anywhere else in the state goes through a different office. The New York State Department of Health holds those records from 1881: $45 a copy online or by phone, plus a vendor fee per order, or $30 by mail, and the state warns of significant delays. The local registrar in the town or city where you were born can also issue copies. The person named, a parent named on it, or someone with a New York State court order can order. The route to an apostille is different too, as our apostille guide explains.

Fixing a mistake or changing your name

Corrections cannot be made online. Send the city's correction application by mail, or bring it to an appointment at 125 Worth Street, though going in person does not speed it up. Most corrections cost a $40 application fee that is not refunded, plus $15 for each new certificate, and take about 12 weeks. Supporting documents must be originals or certified copies: the form says notarized copies and photocopies are not accepted, so a notary cannot stand in for a missing original.

A legal name change does not update your birth certificate on its own. To add it, you need the court order, which must show your date and place of birth and the certificate number, and the city points New Yorkers to Civil Court for that order. Changing the gender marker has its own application, and that one must be notarized. The city's Health Code (section 207.13) waives the fee, corrections included, when the request is tied to an application for Veterans Administration benefits or certain military purposes and written proof is sent first.

Where we come in

Most people can order online and never need a notary. We can help at two points:

• The application. Ordering by mail for yourself, a client or a relative who has died, or changing a gender marker? We notarize the application wherever you are, 7am to midnight, seven days a week.
• The apostille. Once the long form and letter arrive, we take them to the County Clerk and the Department of State and courier the apostilled certificate back: $150 standard, $275 express or $325 next business day, plus the $13 in county and state fees.

What we cannot do: order the certificate for you, speed up the city, or certify a copy of it. Only the office that holds the record issues certified copies.

This guide is general information from the city and state sources linked above, checked in October 2026. Fees and rules change, so confirm on the official page before you pay.

Common questions

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