Nevada's Office of Vital Records sits within the Division of Public and Behavioral Health, and its questions and answers open with an answer few states give so plainly: Nevada's vital records are open to the public. The office is open on weekdays from eight in the morning until five in the afternoon, excluding state holidays, and describes ordering online or by telephone through its single vendor as the fastest way to obtain a birth or death record.
A certified copy of a birth certificate costs twenty five dollars each. Death certificates are priced by county: twenty five dollars where the death occurred in Carson City or in Clark, Douglas, Lyon, Mineral or Washoe counties, and twenty two dollars where it occurred in any other Nevada county. Payment may be made by cheque, money order, cashier's cheque or credit card, with cash accepted only in person at the customer service window and never sent through the post. Local offices that issue vital records appear on the Nevada county pages.
- Twenty five dollars a copy: the fee for each certified birth certificate, with death certificates at twenty five or twenty two by county.
- Open to the public: the office states that Nevada's vital records are open, which is unusual among the states.
- Ten dollars a name: genealogical searches are by appointment, last thirty minutes and cost ten dollars for each name or variant searched.
- One online vendor: the office names the only vendor it uses and publishes a notice of fraud about other sites.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Nevada's own systems: the Nevada Office of Vital Records questions and answers, the office's birth, death, marriage and divorce records pages, the office's vital records forms page, the state birth certificate application form, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Paying, and the credit card paperwork
The office accepts cheques, money orders, cashier's cheques and credit cards, and asks that cash never be sent by post, although it is accepted in person at the customer service window. Paying by card requires two documents rather than a card number written on a form: the office's authorisation for credit card use, and a copy of the card holder's driving licence. Where an applicant has overpaid, the refund process is not self service: the office asks the applicant to telephone and leave a message so that a refund form, already filled in for them, can be sent out for signature and return.
Genealogy by appointment
Because Nevada treats its vital records as open, family history work happens inside the office rather than through a restricted application. Genealogical searches require an appointment, each appointment lasts a maximum of thirty minutes, and each name, or variant of a name, searched costs ten dollars. That pricing rewards preparation: a researcher who arrives with three precise spellings pays thirty dollars for a focused half hour, while someone working through a long list of possibilities will run out of both time and money. The office is in Carson City, and appointments are arranged in advance.
Amendments, corrections and paternity
Adoption orders and correction packets may be posted to the office or placed in its exterior drop box, which is useful outside opening hours. Declarations of paternity are handled differently: they are done by appointment and must be signed either at the Carson City office or at the Southern Nevada Health District offices, since a signature has to be witnessed. For families completing a paternity declaration after a birth, that means planning a visit rather than posting a form.
Fetal demise and stillbirth records
Nevada creates a fetal demise, or stillbirth, record where a birth takes place after twenty weeks and the baby shows no signs of life, with the information recorded for statistical purposes under state law. A certified copy of a stillbirth record is available in person from the state office in Carson City, costs twenty five dollars, and the office notes two things about it: the copies are not legally binding, and they are issued on a case by case basis. Bereaved families should therefore expect a conversation with the office rather than an automatic issue.
Surrogacy, and why out of state orders fail
Nevada's rules on gestational agreements are strict about jurisdiction. A surrogacy case requires a certified court order from a Nevada district court, and out of state court orders will not be accepted. Where the State Registrar receives an order from a Nevada district court validating a gestational agreement and declaring the intended parent or parents to be the parents of the resulting child, the registrar prepares and files a certificate of birth naming the intended parents, then seals and files both the order and any original certificate of birth.
The statute adds the warning plainly: unless the order comes from a Nevada district court in an action originally commenced in the state, a court order about a gestational agreement is not valid for any purpose in Nevada as it relates to a child born there, including the preparation and filing of a birth certificate.
The fraud notice, and what the state does not hold
The department has published a notice of fraud recording an increased number of calls about third party vendors selling birth, death, marriage and divorce certificates, companies that charge customers high fees to process or help apply for certificates the department itself issues. It names the single online vendor it uses and directs anyone who has ordered through another company to the Nevada Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection, by telephone or through its website.
Two categories of record are not the state's at all: marriage certificates and divorce decrees are held at county level, so certified copies come from the county where the event occurred, although the state office can search for and verify marriage or divorce events occurring after 1968 until September 2005 and from 2015 to the present where the request gives the full names, the approximate date and the city or county. And on social security numbers, the state only transmits the request for a child's number when the birth record is registered, and cannot afterwards tell an applicant what has happened to it, which is a question for the federal agency.
Questions about Nevada birth certificates
Related Nevada records
Nevada's other records guides on this site are the Nevada public records law guide for chapter 239, the Nevada death records guide for the same office, the Nevada court records guide for the courts' look up, and the Nevada county pages for every county office.