Connecticut issues birth certificates through town vital records offices as well as the State Vital Records Office, and which offices can help depends on when the birth happened. The Department of Public Health's birth certificate page explains the split: for a birth on or after January 1, 2003, a certified copy may be requested from any town vital records office or from the state office, while for a birth before that date it may be requested only from the town where the birth occurred, the town of the mother's residence at the time of the birth, or the state office.
The practical difference is speed and price. Town issued certificates cost twenty dollars and state issued birth certificates cost thirty, and the department says requests submitted to town offices are generally processed more quickly, while processing at the state office varies and can take up to twelve weeks. Two documents can only come from the state: foreign birth adoptions and stillbirth certificates, which towns do not process. Local offices that issue vital records appear on the Connecticut county pages.
- Twenty at the town, thirty at the state: the same certified copy costs ten dollars less from the town or city of birth.
- Up to twelve weeks at the state: the department's own estimate, against faster processing at town offices.
- A hundred years to public: birth records are confidential until they are at least a century old.
- 2003 changed the counters: births from January 1, 2003 can be certified by any town office, earlier ones only by the town of birth or of the mother's residence.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Connecticut's own systems: the Connecticut Department of Public Health birth certificates page, the department's page on how to obtain a vital record, the department's vital records pages, the state's vital records service page, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Who may obtain a certificate less than a hundred years old
Connecticut treats birth records as confidential and closes them to the general public until they are at least a hundred years old. Inside that period the department lists who may obtain a certificate: the registrant themselves if they are eighteen or older, or an emancipated minor, or a certified homeless youth; a parent, legal guardian, legal custodian, grandparent, spouse, adult child or adult grandchild; an attorney at law representing the person named on the certificate or an eligible relative; an agent of an approved state or federal agency; a member of a Connecticut genealogical society, for which the State Library publishes the detail; and a conservator of person.
Further eligible parties appear in section 7-51 of the General Statutes. Anyone who is not the registrant or a parent named on the certificate must provide documentation proving entitlement alongside the application.
What agencies have to send
A representative of a federal or state agency has three extra obligations. The official request must be completed and signed on agency letterhead. A copy of the employee picture identification issued by the agency must be submitted. And either a release of information form signed by the client, authorising the agency to obtain the record, or an official copy of a guardianship decree issued by a proper court, must accompany the request.
The department adds a practical note for agencies that do not need the state version of the document: where a state certified certificate is not required, an official certified copy can be obtained from the town of birth instead, which is both cheaper and quicker.
The fees, and the payment rules that trip people up
Town issued birth, death, marriage and civil union certificates cost twenty dollars a copy. State issued death, marriage and civil union certificates also cost twenty dollars, while state issued birth, stillbirth and fetal death certificates cost thirty. The payment rules differ by counter and are strict. For a town order, a money order made payable to the town must be submitted, and personal cheques are not accepted. For a state order, a money order made payable to the Treasurer, State of Connecticut is required, and neither credit card payments nor personal cheques are accepted.
Online and telephone orders through the department's only approved third party vendor carry the certificate fee plus processing and shipping charges, with expedited processing available where offered.
Identification, and the substitute documents
Every request for a certified birth certificate must be accompanied by a valid, government issued photographic identification showing the requester's name, date of birth, signature and an expiration date, and the department warns that where a state or town office has reason to doubt the authenticity of a document, it may ask for more. Where no photographic identification is available, two documents from the department's published list may be substituted, and for postal requests a photocopy of each is sufficient, with the instruction not to send originals.
That substitution route is the one that lets a person without a driving licence or passport obtain the certificate they need in order to get one.
Three ways to order
Online and telephone ordering runs through the single vendor the department has approved, and covers birth, death and marriage certificates but excludes stillbirth and fetal death records. In person, a requester may visit the town vital records office where the event occurred, or where the certificate holder resided at the time of the event, or the state office, with the department publishing a town directory for that purpose.
By post, the application goes either to the town where the event occurred or to the state office, and for birth certificate requests a photocopy of the requester's government issued photographic identification must be enclosed. For death certificates there is an extra step where the applicant is eligible to receive the decedent's social security number: proof of identity and proof of relationship are both required.
Choosing the right office
For a birth in 2003 or later, the nearest town vital records office is usually the best choice: twenty dollars, faster processing and a counter that can hand the certificate over. For an earlier birth, only two towns can help, the town of birth and the town where the mother lived at the time, so a requester who knows neither will need the state office. For a foreign birth adoption or a stillbirth certificate, the state office is the only option.
And where a certificate is needed urgently and the requester is out of state, the approved vendor's expedited processing is the practical route, at the thirty dollar state fee plus its own charges.
Questions about Connecticut birth certificates
Related Connecticut records
Connecticut's other records guides on this site are the Connecticut public records law guide for the Freedom of Information Act, the Connecticut death records guide for the same offices, the Connecticut court records guide for the judicial branch look up, and the Connecticut county pages for every county office.