Florida treats a birth record as confidential for one hundred and twenty five years. The Department of Health's birth certificate page lists who may be issued one inside that period: the registrant named on the record if of legal age at eighteen, a parent listed on the birth record, a legal guardian who provides guardianship papers, a legal representative of one of those people who provides documentation, or a person acting under a court order who provides a copy of the order. Valid photo identification is required with every request.
Anyone outside that list has one route in. The application must be accompanied by a notarized affidavit to release a birth certificate, signed by an eligible requestor, together with supporting documentation and a copy of valid photo identification for both the person authorising the release and the applicant. A separate path opens on death: once the registrant's death record is received, a birth certificate marked deceased may be issued to a spouse, child, grandchild or sibling of legal age, provided the application is annotated registrant deceased and a photocopy of the death certificate is enclosed. Local offices that issue vital records appear on the Florida county pages.
- One hundred and twenty five years: a birth record stays confidential for that long, which is longer than most states.
- Nine dollars, never refunded: every order includes a nine dollar search fee that is not returned if no record is found.
- Four dollars for extras: each additional computer generated certification ordered at the same time costs four dollars.
- Ten dollars to rush: priority processing, and same day walk in service for photocopy certificates where available, costs ten dollars more.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Florida's own systems: the Florida Department of Health birth certificates page, the department's certificates and records pages, the federal where to write for vital records page for Florida, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
What a Florida order costs
The bureau's own price list starts at nine dollars for the first computer generated certification and four dollars for each additional one bought at the same time. A photocopy certificate, which is manually produced, costs fourteen dollars for the first and four dollars for each additional copy, and shipping and handling adds a dollar. A nine dollar search fee is included in all orders and is not refundable, which matters because it is charged whether or not the record is found.
Where the date of birth is unknown, the applicant specifies a range of years to be searched and pays an extra two dollars for each calendar year in the range. Rush orders receive priority processing for a further ten dollars, with the envelope marked RUSH, and photocopy certificates obtained the same day at the counter carry the same ten dollar fee where that service is available. Ordering through the state's contracted online vendor costs more: nineteen dollars for the first computer generated certification, a figure that already includes the search fee and the rush fee, plus a seven dollar processing fee charged by the vendor and four dollars for each additional certification.
The three ways to order, and the warning about the fourth
Florida offers an online route through a single contracted vendor, a postal or walk in route through the Bureau of Vital Statistics in Jacksonville, and a county route through local health departments. The department is unusually blunt about online ordering: its contracted vendor is the only one it recommends, because the application process requires the applicant to share personal information, security and confidentiality are critical, and privacy can only be guaranteed through that route.
Anyone searching for a Florida birth certificate online will find many other sites offering to help; the state's own position is that it cannot vouch for them. Two practical limits apply to the online route. Manually produced photocopy certificates are not available through it and must be ordered by post directly from the bureau, and county health department fees vary where a county accepts online orders.
Ordering by post or in person
The bureau takes walk in applicants at 1217 North Pearl Street in Jacksonville, with lobby hours on weekdays from eight in the morning until half past four, accepting cash, cheque, money order, Visa and Mastercard, though not contactless or tap payments. Postal applications go to the Vital Statistics post office box in Jacksonville, using form DH726, the application for a Florida birth record, which is also published in Spanish.
Normal processing for a computer generated birth certificate is three to five business days, not counting shipping, while photocopy certificates and amended records take longer. All orders, including rush orders, are returned by standard post unless the applicant encloses a special prepaid delivery envelope.
What a written request has to contain
A request in writing needs two sets of details, plus payment, identification and any supporting documents. About the person named on the certificate: the full name on the birth record, sex, date of birth or a range of years to search, the city or county of birth, and both parents' full names prior to first marriage. About the applicant: full name, relationship to the person named on the record, mailing address, telephone number and signature.
A copy of the applicant's valid photo identification must be enclosed, which may be a driving licence, a state identification card, a passport or a military identification card. Payment is by cheque or money order payable to Vital Statistics, never cash, and international payments must be by cashier's cheque or money order in United States dollars drawn on a United States bank. Florida law adds a fifteen dollar service charge for a dishonoured cheque.
Fees are not refundable, with one exception: where no record is found, the fee paid for additional copies is refunded on written request.
Two kinds of certificate, and which one to ask for
The computer generated birth certificate is printed on security paper with the Florida embossed seal and is accepted by all state and federal agencies, which makes it the right choice for a passport, a licence or an enrolment. The photocopy generated certificate is also printed on security paper with the embossed seal, but is manually produced from the original document, costs more and takes longer. A photocopy is what to ask for when the detail on the original matters, for genealogy or for a legal question about what the record actually says, rather than when a current identity document is needed. Both are certified by the state; only one can be ordered online.
Counties, old records and births elsewhere
Local county health departments hold Florida birth records from 1917 to the present and accept postal and walk in applications, with fees varying by county, which is the quickest route for someone who lives near the county of birth. Before 1917 the picture is thin: only limited births were recorded between 1850 and 1917, so a search of that period may return nothing even where the birth certainly happened. For home births the department directs enquiries to the local county health department.
For a birth that happened in another state the route is the national vital records guidance rather than Florida, and for a birth abroad it is the federal department of state. One warning applies across all of these routes: anyone who wilfully and knowingly provides false information on a certificate, record, report, application or affidavit under chapter 382 of the Florida Statutes, or who obtains confidential information from a vital record under false or fraudulent purposes, commits a felony of the third degree.
Questions about Florida birth certificates
Related Florida records
Florida's other records guides on this site are the Florida public records law guide for chapter 119, the Florida death records guide for the same bureau, the Florida court records guide for the clerks of court, and the Florida county pages for every county office.