The Illinois Adoption Registry, formally the Illinois Adoption Registry and Medical Information Exchange (IARMIE), is a voluntary mutual-consent system run by the Illinois Department of Public Health that lets adoptees, birth parents, and certain other relatives share medical history or reconnect with each other. Nothing is released unless both sides have filed matching paperwork authorizing the same level of disclosure.1Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 750 ILCS 50/18.1 – Disclosure of Identifying Information
Who Can File With the Registry
Eligibility is set by statute, and the rules differ depending on your relationship to the adoption.1Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 750 ILCS 50/18.1 – Disclosure of Identifying Information
- Adopted or surrendered persons 21 and older may register on their own behalf. “Surrendered” covers people whose birth parents relinquished parental rights even if a formal adoption never happened.
- Either birth parent may register at any time: during the adoption, after it, or years later.
- Adoptive parents or legal guardians may register on behalf of an adopted or surrendered person who is under 21. Note that the cutoff is 21, not 18.
- Birth siblings 21 and older who were not themselves surrendered may register only if the shared birth parent is deceased, and only if that parent did not file a Denial of Information Exchange or select Option E on a Birth Parent Preference Form before death. Supporting documents are required.
- Birth aunts, uncles, and grandparents may register under the same deceased-parent conditions and documentation requirements as siblings.
If your birth parent is still living and you are a sibling or extended relative, the registry is not open to you. Your options are to wait for the birth parent to register or to pursue the confidential intermediary route described below.
What You’re Choosing When You File
Every registrant files one of two things, and the choice controls exactly what the state will do with any match.
Information Exchange Authorization
An authorization signals you are willing to share. You pick the level:
- Medical information only, exchanged anonymously through a Medical Information Exchange Questionnaire, with no names or contact details.
- Identifying information, which, if both parties authorize it, can include names, last known addresses, copies of the other party’s registry application, and a non-certified copy of the adoptee’s original birth certificate.
Information flows only where both filings agree. If you authorized identifying information and the other party authorized only medical, you both receive medical data and nothing more.1Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 750 ILCS 50/18.1 – Disclosure of Identifying Information
Denial of Information Exchange
You can also register specifically to block disclosure. A Denial of Information Exchange tells the state not to share your identifying information with anyone searching through the registry. This is an affirmative step and is distinct from simply never registering. A birth parent’s denial also forecloses the deceased-parent pathway for siblings and extended family. A birth parent who later changes their mind can revoke a denial by filing a Birth Parent Preference Form.1Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 750 ILCS 50/18.1 – Disclosure of Identifying Information
How to File
Download the IARMIE application forms from the IDPH website. The core packet is a Registration Identification Form paired with either an Information Exchange Authorization or a Denial of Information Exchange.2Illinois Department of Public Health. Illinois Adoption Registry and Medical Information Exchange
Give the adoptee’s birth name as it appeared on the original birth certificate, the date of birth, and the Illinois place of birth. Birth parent names improve the odds of a match. Fill in every field you can. Incomplete applications slow the process down or prevent matches outright.
Your signature on the authorization or denial must be notarized. An unsigned or un-notarized form will be returned, and you are not in the system until it is fixed. Include a copy of a valid government-issued photo ID.3Illinois Department of Public Health. Illinois Adoption Registry and Medical Information Exchange
Mail the completed packet to:
Illinois Department of Public Health
Division of Vital Records
925 E. Ridgely Avenue
Springfield, IL 62702
Enclose a $15 check or money order payable to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Cash is not accepted. If you submit a properly completed Medical Information Exchange Questionnaire with your application, the $15 fee is waived.2Illinois Department of Public Health. Illinois Adoption Registry and Medical Information Exchange
What Happens After You File
Once IDPH processes your registration, staff search the database for a corresponding filing. If a potential match turns up and both sides have an Information Exchange Authorization on file, the registry compares the two consent levels and releases only what both authorized. Identifying details move only when both parties checked that box. Otherwise the exchange is limited to the medical questionnaire.1Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 750 ILCS 50/18.1 – Disclosure of Identifying Information
The registry is passive. IDPH does not go looking for people who have not registered. If no matching filing exists, yours stays in the database indefinitely, waiting for the other party to come forward on their own.
What You Can Still Get Without a Match
A registered adoptee, adoptive parent, or legal guardian can receive non-identifying information drawn from the certified copy of the original birth certificate or the Certificate of Adoption, even where no match has occurred. That can include the birth parent’s age, general physical description, and the circumstances surrounding the adoption, with no names attached. Registered birth parents who have completed a Medical Information Exchange Authorization can receive the actual date and place of birth of an adopted person who is 21 or older, without a full identifying-information match.4Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 750 ILCS 50/18.4
Separately, Illinois law gives adult adoptees and surrendered persons born in Illinois who are 21 or older a standalone right to request a non-certified copy of their original, pre-adoption birth certificate. This right does not depend on the registry producing a match or on the birth parent consenting. You submit the IDPH request form, a copy of your photo ID, and $15 to the same Springfield address. The copy is non-certified, suitable for personal and genealogical use but not for legal identification. Surviving adult children and surviving spouses of a deceased adopted or surrendered person may also request the original birth certificate under the statute.5Illinois Department of Public Health. Adoption1Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 750 ILCS 50/18.1 – Disclosure of Identifying Information
When the Registry Isn’t Enough
If passive matching won’t get you where you need to go, you can petition any Illinois circuit court to appoint a confidential intermediary. A CI is authorized by the court to access sealed adoption records, vital records, and agency files to locate a biological relative on your behalf. You must first be registered with the IARMIE, and the court requires proof of that registration with your petition.6Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 750 ILCS 50/18.3a – Confidential Intermediary
The eligibility list for the CI process is broader than the registry’s and reaches adult children and grandchildren of a deceased adoptee, adoptive parents and surviving spouses of a deceased adoptee, adult adopted birth siblings, birth grandparents, and others, subject to the same Option E and denial restrictions that apply to the registry. Former youth in care who were adopted or surrendered get special treatment, including an exemption from the IARMIE registration prerequisite.
Once appointed, the intermediary can inspect vital records, court files, and public or private agency records relating to the adoption, then attempt to locate the sought-after relative and ask whether that person consents to the exchange the petitioner requested. Nothing is released without the located person’s consent, so the mutual-consent framework survives even in this more active route. The statute provides that no fee shall be charged to the petitioner.6Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 750 ILCS 50/18.3a – Confidential Intermediary
Tips for Getting Results
The registry works only as well as what you put into it. Misspelled birth names or an approximate date can block a match that would otherwise land. If a detail is uncertain, submit what you have and note the uncertainty. Partial information is better than none.
Consider authorizing both medical and identifying information rather than medical alone. You can always decline contact later, and starting broad gives the system the widest scope to connect you. If your situation changes, you can file a Denial of Information Exchange at any point to replace an earlier authorization.
If you have been registered for years with no match, the confidential intermediary route is worth considering. Because the statute bars charging the petitioner a fee, the financial barrier is low compared with a private investigator, who would not have the same legal access to sealed files in any case.