Certified Copy of Birth Certificate in Tennessee: How to Apply and Fees

To get a certified copy of a birth certificate in Tennessee, submit application form PH-1654 with proof of identity and a $15 fee to the Tennessee Office of Vital Records or any county health department. You can apply in person, by mail, or online through VitalChek. In-person requests are handled the same day; mail and online requests take about three days to process once received.¹

Who Can Request a Certified Copy

Tennessee limits certified birth certificates to people with a direct and tangible interest in the record: the person named on the certificate, or that person’s spouse, parent, child, or legal guardian.² A guardian applying on behalf of someone else needs to bring proof of guardianship, such as a custody order.³

An authorized representative may also request a copy. Under the state’s rules, that includes an attorney, physician, funeral director, or other agent acting for the registrant or their family, and the representative must present documents supporting their right to the record when they apply.²

One boundary to know: biological parents whose parental rights have been terminated or whose child was adopted are not treated as having a direct and tangible interest, so they cannot obtain a certified copy through the standard process.²

What You Need Before You Apply

Information About the Birth

Form PH-1654 asks for the full name on the certificate, the date of birth, the city and county of birth, the father’s full name, the mother’s full maiden name, and the mother’s last name at the time of birth. The last two are not always the same, so check if the mother had a previous marriage.⁴

Identification

Your primary ID should be a current government-issued photo ID that shows your signature, such as a driver’s license, passport, or military ID. If you don’t have one, you can substitute two items from the state’s secondary list, which includes:⁵

Current pay stub or W-2
Vehicle registration showing your name and current address
Voter registration card
Military discharge record (DD-214)
Utility bill, bank statement, or deposit slip showing your name and current address
Health care coverage card
Medical record
Application page of an insurance policy
Signed Social Security card
A police report or official document supporting that your ID was stolen

For mail requests, include a photocopy of your valid photo ID. If you can’t provide a copy, the application has to be notarized instead.⁴

Proof of Relationship

If you’re not the person named on the certificate, include a document that proves your relationship. A marriage certificate covers a spouse, a birth certificate showing parentage covers a parent or child, and a court order covers a guardian or authorized representative.⁴

How to Submit the Application

In Person

The fastest route is walking into the Tennessee Office of Vital Records in Nashville or any county health department. The Nashville office is on the 1st floor of the Andrew Johnson Tower, 710 James Robertson Parkway, Nashville, TN 37243, open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.⁶ In-person requests are processed the same day.¹

Because of Tennessee’s electronic issuance system, any county health department can now issue any birth certificate registered anywhere in the state. You don’t have to travel to the county where the birth happened.³ Bring your original ID, the completed PH-1654 form, and payment.

By Mail

Send the completed PH-1654 form, a photocopy of your government-issued photo ID (or a notarized application in place of the copy), any documents proving your relationship to the registrant, and a check or money order payable to Tennessee Vital Records to:

Tennessee Vital Records
Andrew Johnson Tower, 1st Floor
710 James Robertson Parkway
Nashville, TN 37243⁴

As of early 2026, mail requests that require no changes to the record are processed in about three days after the office receives your application.¹ Add mailing time in both directions, and expect delays if anything is incomplete or the ID copy is hard to read.

Online Through VitalChek

The Office of Vital Records does not take online orders directly. It contracts with VitalChek as its only authorized online vendor for credit and debit card transactions.³ VitalChek adds its own service and processing fees on top of the $15 state fee, so the total is higher than mailing or walking in. Online requests that need no changes are also processed in about three days.¹

Fees and Payment

A certified copy costs $15. If a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity is attached to the birth record, the certificate is $15 plus a $5 paternity document fee, for a total of $20.⁷ In-person offices accept cash, checks, money orders, and cards. Mail applicants should send a check or money order made out to Tennessee Vital Records.

Read the $15 carefully: it pays for the search of the records, not the certificate itself. If the office searches and can’t find a matching record, you don’t get a refund.⁸ That matters if you’re unsure about the spelling of a name or the county of birth. An unsuccessful search still costs $15.

If Your Situation Is Different

Some requests don’t run through the standard PH-1654 process.

If you were adopted in Tennessee, your original birth record is sealed. Requests for the pre-adoption record and sealed adoption documents go to the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services, 7th Floor, Cordell Hull Building, Nashville, TN 37243; (615) 741-9701. If you were born in Tennessee but adopted in another state, the Office of Vital Records needs a court order — from the court where the adoption was finalized or from the Chancery Court in Davidson County — to release the original certificate.⁹

If the certificate has an error, you don’t request a fresh copy to fix it. You file an amendment on form PH-1186. Corrections made within six months of the birth are free; after that the amendment fee is $15.⁷

If the birth was never registered, Tennessee allows a delayed registration under Tenn. Code § 68-3-308, but a certificate filed six months or more after birth will be marked “delayed” on its face.¹⁰

If you need the certificate accepted in another country, a certified copy alone usually isn’t enough. You’ll need an apostille (or an authentication, for countries outside the Hague Apostille Convention) from the Tennessee Secretary of State’s Office of Authentications, which requires notarization and county-clerk certification before you send the document over.¹¹

Finally, birth records are confidential for 100 years under state law.¹² Older records for genealogy research are held at the Tennessee State Library and Archives rather than the Office of Vital Records.¹³

1
State of Tennessee Department of Health. How long will it take?
2
Tennessee Department of Health. Rules Chapter 1200-07-01 Vital Records
3
State of Tennessee Department of Health. How do I get my certificate? (In Person, Local County Health Department, Mail, or Online)
4
Tennessee Department of Health. Application for Certified Copy of a Tennessee Certificate of Live Birth
5
State of Tennessee Department of Health. Identification Requirements
6
State of Tennessee Department of Health. Office Hours and Location
7
State of Tennessee Department of Health. Fees
8
Legal Information Institute (LII) / Cornell Law School. Fees for Copies and Searches
9
State of Tennessee Department of Health. I was adopted. How can I obtain copies of my original birth record before the adoption?
10
Justia. Tennessee Code 68-3-308 – Delayed Registration of Birth
11
Tennessee Secretary of State. Apostille and Authentication Guide
12
Tennessee Department of State: Tennessee State Library and Archives. Public Services Resource Guide 05 – Searching for Your Ancestors at TSLA
13
Tennessee Secretary of State. Vital Records at the Library and Archives