Birth Certificate Rules in Georgia

• Birth certificates are often used for identification purposesbirth marriage and death image by Warren Millar from Fotolia.com
  
  Birth certificates are a frequently-used means of identification, and are often required to obtain documents like driver's licenses and passports. In Georgia, birth certificates are administered through the Vital Records office in the Department of Community Health. The state office in Atlanta holds birth records to 1919; individual county offices may have older records.
  
  

Access

• Regulations of the Georgia Department of Community Health limit the people who have access to birth certificates. Besides persons with a legal order, the following also have access: the subject, the parents listed on the certificate, the subject's legal guardian, the subject's lawyer or legal representative, the subject's grandparents, the subject's adult child, the subject's adult sibling, and the subject's spouse. All of the aforementioned people must present identification; grandparents and legal guardians must present proof of their relationship with the subject.
  
  

Requests

• You request a copy of a birth certificate by completing a request form (available on the Vital Records website or at the office) and mailing it to the Vital Records office. The request form must include the subject's full name, date and place of birth, current age and sex, and the full name of both parents.
  
  

Fees

• Fees are associated with obtaining a birth certificate. These include: a $25 search fee for one certified copy; a $5 fee for each additional copy of the same record; and a $25 fee for multi-year searching when the exact date of birth is unknown. Fees may be paid by check or money order.
  
  

Amendment

• For the first year after the birth record is filed, any amendment can be made at the Vital Records office; no fee or documentation is required. After the year has elapsed, further amendments cost $10 and usually require documentation (a court order, adoption certificate, paternity acknowledgment, or other documents).
  
  

Filing

• In most cases, birth records are filed by the hospital at which a child is born. They may take several weeks to file the record, at which time a birth certificate will be issued. Children not born at a hospital will need to be registered at the Vital Records office in order to receive a birth certificate; documentation or a witness may be required.