City or state
Only the five boroughs are New York City. Yonkers, Buffalo, Rochester and Albany are the state system. A form addressed to “New York” is incomplete research, and the wrong office returns it months later without the fee.
Every New York vital record, routed to the right office.
New York is not one record system. Which office holds a record depends on what kind it is, whether it happened inside the five boroughs, and when. Answer three questions and we’ll name the office, the form, the fee and the wait — then prepare the request for you, or show you how to do it yourself.
No account needed to prepare a request. Government fee plus the Vital Records Preparation Fee per record.
Free toolfor New York records
Find the right New York vital records office in under a minute.
Answer three questions. We’ll tell you which office holds the record, the correct form, the government fee, the realistic wait, and exactly how to order it.
Start with the record type.
Routing reflects current NYC DOHMH, NYC DORIS, NYC City Clerk, and NYS DOH guidance. Fees and turnaround windows shift — we recheck this quarterly, and every figure above carries the date it was last confirmed.
When the agency says no
A refusal is a step in the process, not the end of it.
New York routinely refuses records to people who are plainly entitled to them — most often a descendant who cannot satisfy the agency’s documentary test for a grandparent’s record. The remedy is an Article 78 proceeding: a petition asking a judge to direct the agency to release it. It is ordinary civil procedure, and it is the reason a refused New York record is still gettable.
The usual way to do this is to retain a lawyer. Petition Kit generates the packet from your own facts instead.
What Petition Kit produces
- Verified PetitionThe petition itself, built from your facts and signed by you.
- Notice of PetitionThe companion notice the court requires alongside it.
- Prior denial, as Exhibit AYour refusal letter, assembled into the packet as the exhibit.
Built from four things you already know: who you are, whose record it is, the record type and county, and where the record is going.
Heritage Passport is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Petition Kit generates court documents from the facts you supply; you file them and you remain responsible for your case.
The three splits that decide everything
What you need to know before you order.
Before or after 1950
Inside the city, the era decides the custodian. Historical records sit with the Municipal Archives; later ones with the Health Department for births and deaths, and the City Clerk for marriages.
Certified or genealogy
These are different products, not different words. A genealogy copy is not a certified record, and several consulates reject it. If a foreign authority needs to rely on the record, check whether it requires exemplification and an apostille before you order — not after.
Questions
Answers to what people actually ask.
- Is New York City the same as New York State for vital records?
- No. The five boroughs — Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island — run their own vital-records system. Everywhere else in New York, including Yonkers, Buffalo, Rochester and Albany, is the state system. Sending a request to the wrong one costs months and the fee is not transferred.
- How much does a New York City birth certificate cost?
- The New York City Health Department charges $15 per copy, plus a processing fee, and any expedite or shipping charge you choose. New York State charges $30 per copy for events outside the five boroughs.
- Who holds pre-1950 New York City records?
- The NYC Municipal Archives, part of the Department of Records and Information Services. It holds births from 1847 to 1909, deaths from 1847 to 1949, and marriages from 1866 to 1949. What it issues is a genealogy copy, not a certified vital record.
- Can I order a birth certificate for someone who has died?
- Yes, but it is a different application from the ordinary one and it requires evidence of the death. New York restricts access to birth records on privacy grounds and treats the subject as living unless you show otherwise.
- What can I do if New York refuses to release a record?
- A refusal is not the end of the route. New York provides a court petition — an Article 78 proceeding — that asks a judge to direct the agency to release the record. It is the standard remedy when you are entitled to a record but cannot satisfy the agency's documentary test.
- Do I need a Heritage Passport account to order a New York record?
- No. You can prepare a record request without joining. You pay the issuing office directly, and we find the right office, complete the correct form, and assemble the request for you to review and send.
Find the path before you collect the archive.
If the record is one step in a citizenship claim, start with eligibility — it tells you which records you actually need, so you order those and nothing else.