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NC Vital Records: Order a Certificate

  • New! Marriage and Divorce certificates pages.
  • New! Step through our preliminary ordering questions below to help route you to appropriate services and content before placing your certificate order or scheduling an appointment (in-person service is available by appointment only).
  • Check our processing dates page to determine if estimated timeframes meet your needs.
    • If not, consider ordering a birth, death or marriage certificate from the Register of Deeds in the county of the event.
    • Divorce certificates may also be obtained from the Clerk of Court in the county where the divorce is filed.

General Issuance Certificate Ordering Options

Preliminary Ordering Questions

To help route you to the correct information and resources for the certificate service you need to request, please step through our preliminary ordering questions.


Place an Order: Overview

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  What Records Are Available through NCOVR?

  • Birth Certificates: 1913-Present
  • Death Certificates: 1930-Present
  • Marriage Certificates: 1962-Present
  • Divorce Certificates: 1958-Present
  • Fetal Death Reports: 2001-Present
  • Birth, death and marriage certificates may also be obtained at the Register of Deeds office in the county where the event took place.
  • Divorce certificates may also be obtained from the Clerk of Court in the county where the divorce is filed.
  • Do you need an older record?

  What about non-standard orders? How do I amend a certificate or change a record?

  • For most amendments or corrections (e.g., changes to birth or death certificates, legitimations, name changes), see the Change a Record page.
  • For Affidavits of Parentage (AOPs), Court Orders for Paternity, and Disestablishment of Paternity, see the Paternity Establishment page.
  • For certificates after adoption, see the Adoptions page. NC Vital Records is the only place to get a birth certificate for an adopted child.
  • Note: The NC Secretary of State's office provides apostille services in North Carolina. Also see our FAQs for more details.

 Payment Processing and Order Delivery

  • Please note for orders placed through our office there is a $24 search (and one copy) fee per each three-year period (or portion thereof) that is nonrefundable, even if a record is not found, which means we must process payments before completing the order.
  • Due to order volume and system migrations from paper to electronic, there will usually be a lag time between your payment being processed and orders being completed and delivered to you, especially if there are issues to be researched and addressed with orders (e.g., amendments to certificates).
  • If a record is not found during the search, then we will be in touch.
  • Payments above the $24 search fee can be refunded when a record is not found and an order is cancelled.
  • See our current processing times for certificate and order types.

 Processing Times

  • Current processing times for regular (non-expedited), expedited, and VitalChek orders are available on our General Issuance Processing Dates page.
  • Birth, death and marriage certificates may also be obtained at the Register of Deeds (ROD) office in the county where the event took place.
  • Divorce certificates may also be obtained from the Clerk of Court in the county where the divorce is filed.

 Information Required for Each Document

Information Required for Each Document
[empty] Birth Certificate Death Certificate Marriage Record Divorce Record Fetal Death Report
Name Name on certificate Name on certificate Names of applicants Names of spouses Name on report, if listed
Additional Names Both parents’ full names       Both parents' full names
Date Date of birth Date of death Date of marriage Date of divorce Date of delivery
Place Place of birth (city or county in N.C.) Place of death (city or county in N.C.) Place where license was issued (city or county in N.C. ) Place of divorce (city or county in N.C.) Place of delivery (city or county in N.C.)
Requestor’s relationship to the person(s) named on the document Required for a certified copy. Required for a certified copy. Required for a certified copy. Required for a certified copy. Required for a certified copy.

 Fees

Applicable fees vary depending on a number of factors regarding requested services and shipping. Please see the fees page for a detailed fees table.

 Help/FAQs?

If you have questions, please see the FAQs page. If your question is not answered there, please contact us.

 Other Ordering Options

  • Birth, death and marriage certificates may also be obtained at the Register of Deeds office in the county where the event took place.
  • Divorce certificates may also be obtained from the Clerk of Court in the county where the divorce is filed.
  • The only authorized vendor for state-issued, certified North Carolina birth certificates is VitalChek.
  • Please be aware that NC Vital Records is the only place to get a birth certificate for an adopted child.

Last Modified: March 25, 2024