How to Get an Idaho Birth Certificate Online or by Mail

To get an Idaho birth certificate, order a certified copy from the Idaho Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics for $16, either online through VitalChek or by mail. There is no public counter, so plan for at least a few weeks between placing your order and receiving the document.¹

Who Can Request a Copy

Idaho limits access to people with a “direct and tangible interest” in the record. That covers the person named on the certificate, immediate family (a parent, spouse, sibling, grandparent, or grandchild), legal guardians, and authorized legal representatives.¹ Someone outside those categories may still qualify by documenting a property right connected to the record, and state or federal agencies can request records for child protection, child support enforcement, or fraud investigations.²

If your relationship to the person named isn’t obvious from the names on the form and your ID, expect to send proof, such as a court order establishing guardianship or a marriage certificate. Once 100 years have passed since the date of birth, the record becomes public under Idaho law and anyone can access it.²

What to Gather Before You Apply

You will fill out a Certificate Request Form, available in English and Spanish on the Department of Health and Welfare website. The form asks for the full name at birth, date of birth, place of birth, and both parents’ full names, including the mother’s maiden name.¹ Fill in whatever you know; gaps can slow a match or prevent one.

You also need a photocopy of a current government-issued photo ID showing your complete signature and expiration date. A driver’s license or passport works. If the copy is blurry, cropped, or missing the expiration date, the office will send a letter asking for a corrected submission, and processing does not start until they have a clean copy.¹

Ordering Online Through VitalChek

The Bureau partners with VitalChek, an independent company, for online and credit card orders. You complete the request and upload your ID on the VitalChek website, and all major credit cards are accepted. Because there is no mail transit and no physical check to process, online orders generally reach the applicant sooner than mail-in requests, though the office does not publish a separate online timeline.³ VitalChek adds a $10.50 service fee on top of the $16 certificate fee.¹

Ordering by Mail

Send the completed request form, a clear photocopy of your ID, and a signed check or money order payable to “Idaho Vital Records” to:

Idaho Bureau of Vital Records and Health Statistics
PO Box 83720
Boise, ID 83720-0036¹

The office cannot deposit unsigned checks or money orders. Any missing signature, missing information, or unclear ID triggers a letter back to you, and the clock does not start until the file is complete.¹

Fees and Processing Times

Each certified copy costs $16, whether the Bureau issues a computer-generated certificate or a certified photocopy of the original record. Standard mail-in orders take 3 to 5 weeks after a properly completed request reaches the office.³

For an extra $10 per event, you can pay for express (rush) processing, which brings the timeline down to roughly 2 to 3 weeks.³ This is not a next-day service. If your deadline is inside two weeks, even the rush option may not arrive in time.

Correcting or Changing a Birth Certificate

If your Idaho birth certificate has a misspelled name, a wrong date, or missing information, you can request a correction from the Bureau of Vital Records. Download and complete the Correction Request Form (also in English and Spanish) and mail it to the same PO Box 83720 address.⁴

The Bureau also handles a few other kinds of changes:

Court-ordered name changes, when a court has legally changed the registrant’s name.
Paternity determinations or rescissions, to add or remove a parent’s name after paternity is legally established or overturned.
Adoptions and adoption annulments, which create a new certificate with the adoptive parents’ names or restore the original record.

Each type of change has its own required supporting documents; the form’s instructions and the Department’s website spell out what to attach for each scenario.⁴ Changes beyond simple corrections carry a separate $25 rush fee if you need expedited processing, on top of any certificate rush fee.³

If the Birth Was Never Registered

Occasionally a birth in Idaho was never recorded, often an older home birth or a case with incomplete hospital records. Idaho law provides a delayed birth certificate process, but it requires substantial documentation that the birth happened in the state. If the state registrar denies a delayed registration, the next step is a petition in an Idaho court to establish the facts and order the record created, and that route is worth handling with an attorney familiar with Idaho vital records law.⁵

1
Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. Order a Record
2
Idaho State Legislature. Idaho Code Title 39 Chapter 2 Section 39-270
3
Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. Processing Times and Fees
4
Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. Change a Birth Certificate
5
Idaho State Legislature. Idaho Code Title 39 Chapter 2 Section 39-278