A birth certificate is an extremely important document, and everyone should keep a safe copy just in case. It comes in handy as it’s one of the best ways to designate your citizenship and identity. You may need your birth certificate for a variety of reasons. Perhaps you need to apply for a passport, citizenship card, or driver’s license. Perhaps you are looking for facts about your life that can only be found on your birth certificate, such as your parent’s names and their places of birth. Or maybe you just want to have a copy for safe-keeping.
One of the places to look up your birth certificate is the Vital Records office of the state you were born in. This office is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, a government agency. Generally, ordering a certified copy of your birth certificate requires mailing in photo ID along with a fee of around $20. Orders may take up to six weeks to process, so only go this route if you absolutely don’t need your certificate right away.
In some cases, you may need to apply for a passport on short notice. Sometimes impromptu trips out of the country are inevitable — but if you don’t have your birth certificate, you’re gonna have some problems. Waiting six weeks for Vital Records to get back to you may prove disastrous.
Fortunately, it’s possible to find your birth certificate online. You won’t pay nearly as big a fee (sometimes you can even order it for free), and the wait is much shorter, sometimes instantaneous because there are many websites where you can simply download the certificate right away and print it off in the comfort of your own home.
This can be a life-safer for some. For others, it simply cuts down on red tape. Finding and ordering your birth certificate online means you won’t have to jump through so many hoops.

