The Vital Records Office of the South Dakota Department of Health sits at 221 West Capitol Avenue in Pierre, but it is not the only place to apply. An application may be lodged at the State Office or at any South Dakota Register of Deeds, by post or in person, and the state also takes orders online and by telephone through the single vendor it has authorised. The ordering page states who may be issued a certified record: the registrant, the registrant spouse, children, parents, guardian, next of kin or authorised representative, with proof of relationship possibly required at the time of the request.
The fifteen dollars is a search fee applicable to all certificates requested, and three rules follow it. The fee is required before any search. If no record is located the fee is not refundable, and what comes back is a Notification of Records Searched. And copies of records cannot be faxed or emailed, whatever the hurry. Under the state administrative rule, vital records are released only as certified or informational copies, both priced at fifteen dollars. Local offices that issue vital records appear on the South Dakota county pages.
- Fifteen dollars before the search: the fee is paid first, is not refunded if nothing is found, and buys a notification instead.
- Any Register of Deeds: applications are taken at the Pierre office or at any county Register of Deeds, by post or in person.
- Waivers for military and children: published forms waive the fee for military applicants and for Head Start, school enrolment or baseball.
- Two fifty on a card: in person card payments carry that surcharge, while cash, cheques and money orders carry none.
Written by SearchSystems.net from South Dakota's own systems: the South Dakota Department of Health page on ordering vital records, the vital records fees page, the department vital records pages, the federal guidance on where to write for South Dakota vital records, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The waiver for baseball
South Dakota publishes two fee waiver forms, and the second of them is unusual enough to be worth naming in full: a fee waiver for Head Start, school enrolment, or baseball. A child who needs a birth certificate to prove their age for a youth league therefore gets one without the fifteen dollars, in the same way as a child enrolling in school or entering a Head Start programme. The other waiver covers military applicants. Both are filled in and submitted with the application rather than claimed afterwards, so an applicant who qualifies should download the form before posting the request rather than paying and asking for a refund, which the department does not give once a search has been made.
What each route costs
The certificate price never changes, but the route adds to it. By post or in person the cost is the fifteen dollar search fee, with a two dollars fifty surcharge where a card is used at a counter. Online or by telephone, the department sets out the arithmetic in full: fifteen dollars for the certificate, six dollars fifty for the vendor, and a five dollar expedite fee covering regular post, which totals twenty six dollars fifty, or seventeen dollars fifty for optional next day courier delivery, which totals forty four dollars.
Only one expedite fee is charged per order, and each additional record on the same order adds fifteen dollars. The card must be in the applicant own name for security purposes, and the department names the only third party vendor it has authorised to accept South Dakota orders.
Identification, or two documents instead
A postal application must be signed in front of a notary or accompanied by a clear copy of a photo identification, which may be state, tribal or federal. Where neither is supplied, the department requires two additional forms of identification instead, and lists them: a copy of a social security card, a utility bill with the current address, a bank statement with the current address, a copy of a car registration or title with the current address, and a pay stub that includes the applicant name, social security number and the address of the business.
The same two document rule applies at a counter to an applicant without a valid photo identification. Accepted payment options vary by location, so a visitor to a Register of Deeds should expect cash, cheque or money order to be safest.
What the fee schedule prices separately
Beyond the fifteen dollar copy, the schedule prices the paperwork around a record. A certificate of birth resulting in a stillbirth costs ten dollars, lower than an ordinary certificate. Preparing and filing a delayed birth, death or marriage certificate costs fifteen dollars, and that fee does not include a copy. Amending a birth, death or marriage record a year or more after the event costs eight dollars, again without a copy, and the department adds a fair provision: certified or informational copies already purchased can be exchanged at no cost once the amendment is made, on an amendment form.
Preparing a new birth certificate with paternity costs five dollars, and preparing a new birth certificate following an adoption costs fifteen, neither including a copy. All fees are payable to the Department of Health.
Certified or informational, and nothing else
The administrative rule the department cites limits the forms a record may take: vital records are released only as certified or informational copies. Both cost fifteen dollars, so the choice is about use rather than price. A certified copy is the document another agency will accept as proof of identity or age. An informational copy carries the same facts without that standing, and is the sensible choice for a researcher or for someone who simply needs to read what the record says.
The same fifteen dollars also buys a verification, or the Notification of Records Searched that comes back when a search finds nothing, which is itself a useful document where an agency needs evidence that no record exists.
Genealogy, tribal records and divorce
Four standing notes decide where certain requests go. Genealogy requests should be posted to the State Office, and are not accepted online or over the telephone, so a family historian cannot use the quick route. Tribal marriage and divorce records can only be obtained directly from the tribe, not from the state. Divorce certificates can only be obtained from the State Office, rather than from a Register of Deeds. And a divorce decree, which is the court document rather than the state certificate, can only be requested from the clerk of courts in the county where the divorce was filed.
Each of these saves a wasted fee for a requester who would otherwise apply at the wrong counter.
The services portal
Alongside ordering, the department runs a vital records services portal for the documents that create a record rather than copy one. It allows electronic submission of the parents worksheet required for birth registration, which is the form that follows a birth and feeds the certificate, and it lets couples submit their marriage licence application electronically to the Register of Deeds. For new parents the practical effect is that the registration side of the process can be completed online even though the certificate itself must still be ordered through one of the four routes above, and for a couple marrying in South Dakota the licence application no longer requires a visit to the courthouse to file.
Questions about South Dakota birth certificates
Related South Dakota records
South Dakota's other records guides on this site are the South Dakota public records law guide for the open records statutes, the South Dakota death records guide for the same office, the South Dakota court records guide for the unified judicial system, and the South Dakota county pages for every county office.