How Do You Order an Illinois Birth Certificate?

The birth certificate rule in one table

| Issuer | Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Vital Records, or the county clerk where the birth occurred | | Mail route | IDPH Vital Records, 110 West Lawrence Avenue, Springfield, IL 62704-2610. Check or money order payable to IDPH | | Short form | 10 dollars first copy, 2 dollars each additional copy. Certified copy with the basic record items | | Long form | 15 dollars first copy, 2 dollars each additional copy. Certified copy with the information collected at time of birth. Accepted for all legal use | | Genealogical copy | 10 dollars first copy, 2 dollars each additional copy. Uncertified, for births 75 years and older, not for legal use | | Commemorative certificate | 40 dollars each | | Mail wait | Approximately 12 weeks from receipt of the paperwork. No updates from IDPH during processing | | Before 1916 | Contact the county clerk in the county where the birth took place | | Form | Form VR 180, Application for Illinois Birth Record. Complete in full, sign, and include ID and the fee |

What makes ordering different

Both priced copies are certified: the short form and the long form differ in how much information they carry, not in certification. The short form carries the basic record items. The long form carries the information collected at time of birth. It is the one accepted for all legal use, including passport applications. Only the genealogical copy is uncertified. It covers births 75 years and older, and it is not for legal use. The short form is a certified copy, not an informational one.

The second difference is eligibility. Birth certificates are confidential records. Copies go only to a person entitled to receive them, under 410 ILCS 535/25(4). That means the person listed on the record if 18 or older, a parent or other legal representative, a court order, or a government request. The application must state the requester's relationship to the person on the record and the intended use. A legal representative can be an attorney acting for the person named, an agent authorized by power of attorney, or a court-appointed representative. It can also be an agent with written, notarized authorization from the person named.

The process, step by step

1. Complete Form VR 180 in full, sign it, and include a copy of the requester's identification and the proper fee. Mail it to 110 West Lawrence Avenue, Springfield, IL 62704-2610, with a check or money order payable to IDPH. The office moved to this address on September 14, 2026.
2. Identification must be a valid government-issued photo ID. It must not be expired, and it must be readable. A driver's license, passport, military ID, VA photo medical card, or Tribal ID all qualify. If the ID is missing, unreadable, or expired, the request is returned unprocessed. If it expired less than 6 months ago, add one more document showing name and current address from the last 6 months. If it expired more than 6 months ago, or there is no valid ID, add two such documents. Social Security cards do not count as identification.
3. Or contact the county clerk where the birth occurred. County fees and times are set county by county.
4. Wait approximately 12 weeks from receipt for a mailed request. IDPH gives no updates during processing.

The IDPH birth pages read for this guide describe the mail route and the county-clerk route. No online channel is stated there, and none appears here.

Related Illinois guides

See Illinois Unclaimed Property (I-Cash). See also Illinois REAL ID Driver's License and State ID. The full hub is the Illinois Admin Process Directory.

Source

The facts on this page come from the Illinois Department of Public Health: the Obtain Birth Certificate page, the Birth, Death, Other Records parent page, and Form VR 180 (revised August 2026). Facts verified 2026-10-27.

This page explains how the process works and what the official rules say. It is general information, not legal advice. For a dispute about your specific situation, talk to a lawyer or your government agency.