How to Get a Copy of Your Marriage Certificate in NYC

To get a copy of your marriage certificate in NYC, you go through the City Clerk’s Office if the marriage license was issued in any of the five boroughs after 1949, and through the NYC Municipal Archives if the marriage was recorded before 1950. The City Clerk offers two request methods: an in-person appointment scheduled through Project Cupid, or a mail-in application sent to the Record Room at 141 Worth Street in Manhattan. A standard domestic-use copy starts at $15. There is no fully online ordering option through the City Clerk; the website is used to book appointments, not to place and pay for record orders.¹

If the license was issued anywhere else in New York State, the City Clerk cannot help you. Those records are held by the New York State Department of Health or by the town or city clerk where the license was purchased.²

Are You Allowed to Order the Record

The City Clerk draws a line at 50 years. Any marriage record older than 50 years from today is treated as historic and is available to anyone who pays the search fee. Records less than 50 years old are restricted.

To order a recent record, you need to fall into one of these categories:

You are one of the spouses named on the certificate.
You have a notarized letter from a spouse authorizing you to receive the record.
You are ordering on someone else’s behalf. You can pay for the record, but the Clerk will mail it directly to that person; you will not receive the document yourself.
You are an attorney who needs the record as evidence in a legal proceeding.
Both spouses are deceased, and you can present original death certificates for both.
You have a judicial or other proper purpose under Section 19 of the New York Domestic Relations Law, which classifies marriage records as public records open to inspection for proper purposes.³

Short Form or Extended Form

The City Clerk issues two versions of the certificate, and picking the wrong one means paying twice.

A short form confirms the legal union and covers most domestic needs: updating your name with the Social Security Administration, enrolling on a spouse’s health insurance, changing bank accounts. It costs $15 for the first copy and $10 for each additional copy ordered at the same time.

An extended form includes parent names and the officiant who performed the ceremony. You need this version for anything involving a foreign government, including dual citizenship applications, a foreign passport obtained through a U.S.-based consulate, or an apostille. It costs $35 for the first copy and $30 for each additional copy.⁴

If there’s any chance you’ll need the document outside the United States, order the extended form from the start.

Requesting From the City Clerk

By Appointment at a Borough Office

Walk-ins are not accepted. You must schedule an appointment through Project Cupid at nyc.gov/cupid before visiting any City Clerk office. Appointments are available at the Manhattan office at 141 Worth Street and at the Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, and Staten Island branch offices. Without a confirmation email, the office will turn you away.¹

Bring valid, unexpired photo identification. The Clerk accepts a wide range: IDNYC, a driver’s license or learner’s permit from any U.S. state or territory, a non-driver ID card, an active U.S. military ID, a passport, a permanent resident card, a U.S. employment authorization card, or a Certificate of Naturalization issued within the last ten years. Expired IDs are refused regardless of type.⁵

By Mail

A mail-in request needs three things in one envelope:

The completed application form, downloadable as a PDF from the City Clerk’s website. You will check a sworn statement confirming your eligibility, list both spouses’ names, and give the approximate date and borough of the marriage. Unsigned forms are not processed.⁶
A photocopy of your valid photo ID.
Payment by U.S. postal money order or by money order or certified check drawn on a U.S. bank, made payable to “The City Clerk of New York.” Personal checks, cash, and credit cards are not accepted for mail-in requests.⁷

Send the package to:

City Clerk of New York
141 Worth Street
New York, NY 10013
Attn: Record Room

Use a trackable mailing method. Your ID copy and payment are both inside, and neither the Clerk nor the postal service will replace a lost envelope.

What It Costs

All fees are non-refundable. You are paying for the search, not for a guaranteed result.

Short form: $15 for the first copy, $10 per additional copy.
Extended form: $35 for the first copy, $30 per additional copy.
Multi-year search: the first year is included; a second year adds $1, and each further year adds $0.50.

The same fees apply whether you appear in person or mail the request.⁴

Veterans and their families are exempt. When the record is needed by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the New York State Department of Veterans’ Services to determine benefits eligibility, all search and certificate fees are waived by statute.³

If the Marriage Was Before 1950

Marriages reported before 1950 are not at the City Clerk. They belong to the NYC Municipal Archives, which maintains two series: Health Department marriage certificates from 1866 to 1937, and City Clerk marriage licenses from 1908 to 1949. The collections cover all five boroughs, including the towns and villages consolidated into greater New York City in 1898.⁸

The Archives has its own fee schedule and timing:

Certified copy: $18 per record.
Letter of exemplification or no-amendment letter: $12 per copy.
Credit or debit card surcharge: $3.50 per transaction, non-refundable.
Processing time: 1–2 weeks for a non-certified PDF copy, 8–10 weeks for a certified copy.

You can order online with a credit or debit card, mail in an application with a check or money order payable to “NYC Department of Records and Information Services,” or schedule an in-person appointment. Mail requests go to 31 Chambers Street, Room 103, New York, NY 10007. Multiple certificates in one order may ship separately with different processing times.⁹

If You Need the Certificate for Use Abroad

An apostille is the authentication that makes your NYC marriage certificate valid in countries that participate in the Hague Convention. Getting one in New York is a three-step chain, and each step happens at a different office.

Start by ordering an extended form marriage certificate from the City Clerk. The document must carry the City Clerk’s hand signature with a raised seal. A short form will not work.¹

Take that extended certificate to the County Clerk’s Office (in Manhattan, the New York County Clerk), which authenticates the City Clerk’s signature for a $3 fee. Then bring the county-authenticated document to the New York State Department of State at 123 William Street, 19th Floor, New York, NY 10038, which verifies the County Clerk’s signature and attaches the apostille for $10.¹⁰

The minimum total is $48: $35 for the extended certificate, $3 for county authentication, $10 for the state apostille. Build in extra time. People routinely underestimate how long the chain takes when a visa or citizenship filing has a hard deadline.

Fixing an Error on the Certificate

If you catch a mistake soon after the ceremony, you may not have to pay to fix it. Marriages performed at a City Clerk office allow free corrections within 24 hours of receiving the certificate. Marriages performed elsewhere allow free corrections within two weeks of receiving the certificate by mail.¹¹

After those windows close, you file a formal Amendment Application with a $10 fee, payable by credit card or money order. The application must be notarized. You submit the original Certificate of Marriage Registration if you still have it, together with an original document verifying the correct information (a birth certificate, for example, to fix a date of birth). If you file by mail, send photocopies of supporting documents certified as true copies by a notary public rather than the originals. Amendments can be filed in person at 141 Worth Street or started online through City Clerk Online and completed by mail.¹¹

One limit worth knowing: the amendment process cannot be used to change a surname. If you want a different name on the certificate, the only path is to remarry, which means paying for a new marriage license ($35) and a new ceremony ($25). The Clerk will also deny any amendment that appears to involve fraud or an attempt to get around a law or regulation.¹¹

1
Office of the City Clerk. Marriage Records
2
New York State Department of Health. Marriage Certificates
3
New York State Senate. New York Domestic Relations Law 19 – Records to Be Kept by Town and City Clerks
4
Office of the City Clerk. Fees – City Clerk
5
Office of the City Clerk. Proper Identification
6
Office of the City Clerk. Mail Request for Marriage Records
7
NYC311. Marriage Record
8
NYC Municipal Archives. How to Research the Vital Records Collection
9
NYC311. Historic Birth, Death, or Marriage Record
10
NYC311. Apostille Document Authentication
11
Office of the City Clerk. Amendments to Marriage Records