ID Requirement
A copy of a photo ID is required for all requests. If a FO employee is the requester,
see GN
00308.001B.3 for acceptable forms of identification. Requests take approximately six weeks to
process. For faster service, send the request by certified mail.
Birth Records in Adoption Cases
Original birth records in adoption cases occurring after 1949 are sealed and are not
available to anyone. For adoptions prior to 1950, original records were not changed.
Records requested under the adoptive names for these people will be returned as a
“no record” search unless the individual has had the record corrected. If the applicant
knows that they were adopted, the applicant should include this information with any
request. The birth record that the Division of Vital Records (DVR) has on file will
be corrected if the court adoption record can be located, but this will take several
weeks. Original record will not be issued.
Birth Certificate
(BC)
Changes
Documentation for changes to a BC due to legitimation, adoption, or court order of
parentage or gender change becomes sealed and is not available. In these cases, a
new record is issued with the new information. There is no evidence of the prior information,
but the BC number remains the same. For changes or corrections for other reasons (e.g.,
court order of name change, voluntary acknowledgment of paternity), the old data is
lined out and the new data typed in.
The FO cannot obtain a free copy of the birth/death record.
To verify or certify a birth/death record, send an E-562 to FO 488. Use Electronic
Verification of Vital Events (EVVE) to verify births from 1985 and continuing.
NOTE: Sometimes it is necessary to compare the BC number shown in the “BCN” field of the
NUMIDENT with the BC number shown on the actual State file birth certificate.
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•
The BC might show the year in a 4-digit format (e.g. NUMI shows 11298123456 but BC
shows 112-1998-123456).
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•
The BC might have a lead zero for the last six digits (e.g. NUMI shows 11298123456
but BC shows 112-98-0123456).
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•
The actual BC may have an additional zero after the lead "6" or "7" (e.g. NUMI shows
11293612345 but BC shows 112-93-6012345). However, prior to 2010, the numbers for
all birth records for the city of Chicago usually begin with "6" or "7" (never a zero).
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•
You could see a combination of the above.
NOTE: EVVE usually requires the full 7 digits for the last part of the number, so you
may need to add a “zero” [GJ1] when trying to verify in EVVE. Example: Birth record
number 123456 should be input as 0123456.