Every death registered in California since July 1905 is kept by the California Department of Public Health, Vital Records, which describes its holding as a permanent, public record. Public does not mean anyone can order a copy that proves anything. The state issues two kinds of certified copy from the same entry. The authorized copy can be used to establish the identity of the person named, and it goes only to the people Health and Safety Code section 103526 lists, each of whom signs a sworn statement that must be notarized. The certified informational copy is sold to any interested person without an oath, and it is printed with the words Informational, Not a Valid Document to Establish Identity. Banks, insurers and pension plans settling an estate normally want the authorized version, so the eligibility question comes first.
The second thing to settle is where to order. A death record reaches the state only after the county has recorded it, and the department itself recommends that birth and death copies be bought from the county health department or the county recorder for the first three months after the event. A state request made before the record is in its database produces a Certificate of No Public Record, and the fee is kept. In practice, a family closing an estate in the weeks after a funeral orders through the funeral home or the county, and the state office is the right place for older records, for out of state applicants who do not know the county, and for amendments.
- $26 a copy: the state price for a death certificate since January 1, 2026, under Assembly Bill 64 of 2025, with fetal death copies at $23.
- Mail only at the state: since July 1, 2026 CDPH Vital Records no longer accepts applications sent through online vendors and processes only mailed requests.
- Funeral homes and next of kin: the death form adds a funeral establishment employee and surviving next of kin under section 7100 to the authorized list.
- Three months rule of thumb: the state suggests the county for the first three months after a death, because the record must be recorded locally first.
Written by SearchSystems.net from California's own systems: the department's page on obtaining certified copies of death records, the application for a certified copy of a death record, VS 112, January 2026 revision, the CDPH Vital Records fees page, the CDPH Vital Records processing times page, the CDPH notice on third party vendors, the CDPH important information page on recording delays and amendments, the CDPH county registrar and recorder directory, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
The authorized list for a death record
Form VS 112 is the death version of the state application, and its Part 1 is longer than the matching list for births because a death brings in people who handle the body and the estate. A parent, legal guardian, child, grandparent, grandchild, sibling, spouse or domestic partner of the person who died qualifies, with a guardian sending proof of guardianship. A law enforcement officer, or a representative of another government agency doing official business, qualifies, and a company working for an agency must send that agency's written authorization.
A person or agency empowered by statute or appointed by a court to act for the deceased or the estate qualifies on sending the court order or the papers naming them executor or administrator, and so does an attorney representing the estate.
Two categories are specific to death records. An agent or employee of a funeral establishment qualifies when acting within the scope of that job and on behalf of the people listed in Health and Safety Code section 7100, subdivisions (a)(1) to (8), the statute that ranks who controls the disposition of remains. Surviving next of kin as defined in section 7100 also qualify. That reaches relatives such as nieces, nephews or cousins in the order the statute sets out, where no closer family survives, which is often exactly the situation in a small estate.
The sworn statement and who is exempt from the notary
Anyone in the authorized list signs the sworn statement on page five of the application, form VS 20, declaring under penalty of perjury that they are an authorized person under section 103526(c). The signature must be completed before a notary public. Without the notarized statement the department will not accept an authorized request for processing, and it returns the packet with a letter saying what needs to be corrected. One statement covers several records ordered together, provided it names each person and the applicant's relationship to each.
Three kinds of applicant still fill in the top of the statement but skip the notary. Law enforcement and government agencies are exempt, and for death records only, so are funeral establishments, which is why a funeral director can order a family's first batch of certificates without a notarial seal. A statement notarized abroad needs an apostille, except when it was taken by a United States ambassador, minister, consul, vice consul or consular agent, or by a judge of a foreign court of record with a seal.
What it costs, and the amendment price list
The department's fees page says vital record fees are fixed in statute and that the January 1, 2026 increase came from Assembly Bill 64, Chapter 662 of the Statutes of 2025. A death certificate is $26 a copy and a fetal death certificate is $23. Payment is a check or money order drawn on a United States bank, made out to CDPH Vital Records, and the page warns that a missing signature, a blank payee line or a wrong date on the check can get a request rejected. If the record cannot be found, the applicant receives a Certificate of No Public Record and the fee is retained as a search fee.
Corrections to a death record use form VS 24, the affidavit to amend. Filed within one year of the date of death, registering the amendment is free but carries no free copy, and each copy is $26. Filed after the first year, there is a $26 amendment fee that includes one copy of the amended record, and extra copies are $26 each. A death that was never registered at all goes through VS 109, a court order delayed registration of death, on the same $26 fee with one copy included. The department's published average for amendments is 7 to 9 weeks.
How long the state takes, and the end of online ordering
The department's processing times page gives an average of 4 to 6 weeks to process a certified copy request, counted from the day the request arrives, and says the time can grow with volume. It adds that because of its large volume, a certificate can often be obtained more quickly from the county office. Anyone using the state form to apply at a county should check the county's fee first, since county charges may differ from the state's.
A change made this year catches people who used commercial ordering sites in the past. From July 1, 2026, CDPH Vital Records no longer accepts applications submitted through online third party vendors and processes only applications sent by mail. A vendor may still mail the application to the state on a customer's behalf or send it electronically to the county where the death occurred, but the department can only check status once the paper arrives, and it will not deal with vendor fees, refunds or add on services. Ordering direct costs only the statutory fee and postage.
Counties, city registrars and the first year
California splits local custody in two. The local registrar, usually the county health department, holds birth and death records for the current year and the year before, while the county recorder holds them for all years. Requests in person are made at the county office where the death was registered, and the event must have happened in that county. The state's county registrar and recorder directory lists every county recorder along with three cities that run their own registrar offices, Berkeley, Long Beach and Pasadena.
Those city offices keep records only briefly. The directory notes that Berkeley maintains records for two years from the event and sends everything older to the Alameda County Recorder, and that Long Beach keeps them for one year before the Los Angeles County Recorder in Norwalk becomes the source. For a death in Pasadena, the city health department on North Fair Oaks Avenue is the local registrar, and the Los Angeles County Recorder holds the long term copy. County recorder addresses and telephone numbers for all 58 counties are printed at the back of form VS 112.
Older deaths and the limits of the state file
The state register begins in July 1905. For a death before then, the department sends researchers to the county recorder where the death occurred, and the result depends on what that county kept. Because the informational copy needs no oath, it is the copy a genealogist normally orders, and the form warns that for some years an informational copy has signatures and Social Security numbers concealed. Part 2 of the application asks for the name, the county of death, the date of death or an approximate date, the Social Security number, the date of birth, the mother or parent's name and the spouse or domestic partner's name, and the department asks for as much as possible to help it find the entry.
The department's pages describe only certified copies; they do not offer a searchable public death index, and this guide does not point to one. Questions go to the Customer Service Unit at (916) 445-2684, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., or by email to CHSIVitalRecords@cdph.ca.gov, and mail goes to Vital Records MS 5103, P.O. Box 997410, Sacramento, CA 95899-7410. A divorce is recorded differently: a certified copy of the decree comes only from the Superior Court in the county that granted it.
Questions about California death records
Related California records
For the same office's birth records see California birth certificates. For records held by state agencies beyond vital records, the California public records law guide explains the Public Records Act, and the California page leads to every county.