Texas
Birth
Certificate

Texas Birth Certificate

When you need to request a Texas Vital Statistics records search and order records locally quickly an official raised seal certified copy of a Texas birth certificate.

You have three different Texas birth certificate replacement versions and two different design style options to choose from the Vital Statistics Division of the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS).

Please note you can only request a Texas vital protected records database search and be issued an official raised seal certified Texas birth certificate from 1903-present.

To be eligible to order a Texas birth certificate copy for someone else other than yourself all Texas residents must be an immediate family member by blood or marriage of the child listed on the Texas birth record:

  • Self (you)
  • Child
  • Parent
  • Brother or Sister
  • Grandparent
  • Spouse

To be eligible to order Texas birth certificates for someone else other than yourself all non-Texas residents must be:

  • The listed parent of the child listed on the Texas birth record.

 

 

Texas Birth Certificate
Long Form Version

The long form Texas birth certificate type is an official raised seal Texas birth certificate replacement that contains detailed private personal information so it’s not recommended for everyday use. Texas long form birth certificates will display all birth record amendment corrections that have ever been made to your legal Texas birth records.

This type of Texas birth certificate replacement is normally required and universally accepted by all U.S state and federal government agencies for immigration, proof of newborn’s identity, Native American heritage verifications, passport applications and renewals, traveling abroad, paternity issues, dual citizenship applications, and for Indian registry purposes.

You will see below the one Texas birth certificate long form image covered in void text and that is a Texas Vital Records security feature that is triggered whenever anyone tries to scan the birth certificate. The other image without the void text on it is when you take a picture of the long form Texas birth certificate with a cellphone or camera.

Texas birth certificate long form scan
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Texas birth certificate long form photo
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Texas Birth Certificate
Short Form Version

The short form Texas birth certificate type is the most commonly issued and used type of official raised seal Texas birth certificate replacement.

This is because it complies with all the needed requirements for registering your child or grandchild for school or yourself for college or high school enrollment, researching your families past history, heritage, lineage, bloodline, family tree, genetics, genealogy and ancestry records, signing your kids or grandkids up for youth sports leagues, bands, and camps, insurance claims, mortgage applications, new employment, obtaining a driver license (note some states now require a long form birth certificate copy), social security number, divorce decree, or marriage license in most U.S states.

You will see below the one Texas birth certificate short form image covered in void text and that is a Texas Vital Records security feature that is triggered whenever anyone tries to scan the birth certificate. The other image without the void text on it is when you take a picture of the short form Texas birth certificate with a cellphone or camera.

Texas birth certificate short form scan
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Texas birth certificate short form photo
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Texas Birth Certificate
Heirloom Versions

This type of Texas birth certificate can only be used as a gift or for decorative reasons and has an engraved intaglio border, extra thick paper card stock, and various background security features.

You can choose from two different Texas birth certificate heirloom styles which are the bassinet or Texas flag designs that come in 11 x 14 inch sizes.

Please note Texas Vital Statistics does not allow official heirloom Texas birth certificate replacements to be issued to any person whose recorded Texas birth was established by court order or delayed record procedures.

Texas birth certificate heirloom bassinet
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Texas birth certificate heirloom flag
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WOMEN: If you make an error and you don’t put your legal MAIDEN middle name (leave blank if you have no legal middle name) in spot #7 and legal MAIDEN name in spot #8 on the authorization form the state will reject your application.

You will then forfeit the $195 you paid us for rush filing your Texas birth certificate application request. You will have to pay us a second payment of $195 to reattempt to rush file another application on your behalf once you email us a corrected, signed, and notarized authorization form.

MEN & WOMEN: If you make an error and you don’t put the legal MAIDEN middle name of your mother (leave blank if your mother has no legal middle name) in spot #16 and legal MAIDEN name of your mother in spot #17 on the authorization form the state will reject your application.

You will then forfeit the $195 you paid us for rush filing your Texas birth certificate application request. You will have to pay us a second payment of $195 to reattempt to rush file another application on your behalf once you email us a corrected, signed, and notarized authorization form.

Please note you are only paying us to rush submit your application paperwork in person to the Texas Vital Records office. If you make a spelling, name, or date error of any kind on the state authorization form which will lead Texas Vital Records to reject your application or if no birth record is found by the State of Texas we receive our full service fees. There are no refunds of any kind for any reason.

If you’re a U.S citizen that was born in Texas who is now living abroad and needs to request certificates of your Texas birth certificate. You must get this required Texas birth certificate authorized form signed and stamped by the U.S embassy or at a U.S consulate office in the country that you currently reside in before you can email it to us to rush file with the Texas Vital Statistics office in Austin, TX.

The fastest service processing times to get this extra international filing step done varies from country to country.

Scan Email Your Government ID

Step 2:
Scan & Email
Government ID Copy

Scan and email us a valid (can’t be expired) clear photocopy of one of these documents: U.S driver’s license, U.S passport, U.S state identification card, U.S military ID card or a U.S permanent resident card (green card).

Your ID photocopy needs to be the front side only (top and bottom pages if you’re using a U.S passport) and the scanned photocopy can be in B/W or color. Do not have anything else on the page that has your ID copy on it. Meaning your ID copy must be on it’s own separate scanned sheet of paper.

If you don’t have access to a scanner at your home, work, or apartment complex you can download a free scanner app to your Android or Apple smartphone device. Use it to take a photo of your government issued identification and the app will turn the photo into a PDF which you can then email to us. Also, any FedEx Office, UPS Store, Staples, or OfficeMax can do document scanning for like a dollar or two for you.

This is important because when we physically present your identification copy to the Texas Vital Records office when we rush file your Texas birth certificate application paperwork they can reject your application if they feel your ID photocopy is not readable or to blurry.

 

Purchase Prepaid Return Shipping Label

 Step 4:
Purchase Prepaid
Return Shipping Label

Visit www.FedEx.com or www.UPS.com to create and purchase a prepaid return shipping label.

Download the label that is created which will be in a PDF format and then email the PDF shipping label to us so we can print it out and use it to mail all your documents back to you.

Don’t worry if you have never created a prepaid shipping label before because you don’t need to create a FedEx or UPS account and it only takes a few minutes. Just click on the FedEx or UPS FAQ links below to be walked through step by step on how to create and purchase a shipping label online.

https://www.birthcertificatetexas.org/faqs/general-questions/how-and-where-do-i-create-and-purchase-a-prepaid-ups-return-shipping-label

https://www.birthcertificatetexas.org/faqs/general-questions/how-and-where-do-i-create-and-purchase-a-prepaid-fedex-return-shipping-label

Once Birth Certificate Texas receives all four of the above required documents from you we’ll email you to confirm receipt of your documents. If we see any potential issues or obvious errors made by you with your documentation we’ll let you know right away.

We highly recommend you email us the signed and notarized Designation To Obtain a Vital Record before you mail it to us so we can make sure you filled it out properly. 

This way you can rescan and send us a more clear ID and authorization form copies (the most common issue) or worse case you’ll need to go get the authorization form re-notarized because we caught an error on it that you or the notary public made that would result in your birth certificate application being rejected by the State of Texas.  

On the prepaid return FedEx or UPS shipping label that you must provide us list the senders mailing address (from) as your address and then for the receivers address (to) just list the address of where and who you want your documents mailed back to.

 

Emails You Can
Expect From Us

You’ll receive one of two second emails from Birth Certificate Texas after the first confirmation of receiving your documentation email.

The first email you’ll receive from Birth Certificate Texas is a congratulatory email stating that we’ve successfully retrieved an official certified Texas birth certificate from the Texas Vital Statistics office for you and we’ve dropped your documents off at the courier (FedEx, UPS) that you chose to ship with.

We’ll also attach a photo of your new Texas birth certificate before we mail it back to you as instant verification proof to put your mind at ease.

You’ll receive a second email from Birth Certificate Texas if any issues arise when we hand filed your Texas birth certificate application with the State of Texas. Issues such as no Texas birth records were found on the person listed on the application when Texas Vital Records did its initial birth records database search.

Or a possible Texas birth certificate application form mistake was made by you which resulted in the state not being able to run a proper search for your Texas birth records.

Most Common
Mistakes
People Make

Some of the most common mistakes that people make when they’re filling out the Texas birth certificate authorization form are they spell their own name wrong (we kid you not, this happens), the name of the child listed on the Texas birth record or one of the parent’s names.

People also put down the wrong city and county of where they think they were born or their child was born in Texas, they put down the wrong birth date, they check the wrong box where it asks what is your relationship to the person whose name is listed on the Texas birth certificate that you’re requesting or they wrongly write in a name in the one field on the form where it must be left blank (we state on the form to leave it blank).

If the Texas Vital Records office can’t find a Texas birth record for you that we hand file your Texas birth certificate application (this only happens about twenty percent of the time in our experience) it will then be automatically forwarded off to what Texas Vital Statistics calls the “Search” or “Search Team” department.

Texas Vital Records will then give us a photocopy of the signed application form that we filled out and submitted to them on your behalf along with the written notes they put on the application form in the upper right hand corner. Birth Certificate Texas will then forward that application form copy onto you via email.

This is the proof that we did in fact file your Texas birth certificate application with the State of Texas and we filed it properly in the time frame that you paid us to do it.

When The State Can’t
Find Your Vital Record

The Texas Vital Records Search Team will do an extensive deep database search to see what errors might have been made on your Texas birth certificate application request (the information that you gave us) or your birth certificate does not list a hospital on it (this is required by federal law to get or renew a U.S passport).

Or on the original Texas birth certificate record that was filed at the time of birth (misspellings, wrong date, wrong city or county listed, etc.)

Texas Vital Statistics will search all 254 Texas county databases (not just the one county that you listed on the application form) to hopefully find your official Texas birth record.

It will take the Texas Vital Statistics Search Team a minimum of 10-15 business days (37 days was the longest time we’ve ever seen) to locate and let us know if they found your Texas birth record or they have added the birth hospital to your newly issued birth certificate.

Or they will inform us that no Texas birth records were found in the official state birth records database.

This would mean the government of Texas has no official record of that person (the birth child listed on the birth certificate application) ever being born legally in the State of Texas.

Ordering Birth
Certificates
Online Cost

Services Packages
$195

48-72 Hour
Birth Records Service

Texas Vital Records

Texas death verification letters and birth, marriage, and divorce verification letters.

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Texas Seal

All Texas government filing fees included in the price.

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100 Satisfaction Guarantee

Money back guarantee if we don’t file your application within the time frame you pay for.

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Document Courier

Courier of all your documents to any shipping center (return shipping costs not included).

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Cellphone Email

Application status updates by email or text.

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Austin Texas

We’re based in Austin, TX, so no middleman for you to go through.

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Phone and Email Support

American phone and email support five days a week.

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Photos

We’ll email you a photo of your documents before we mail them back to you.

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$195

48-72 Hour
Birth Records Service

Texas Vital Records

Texas birth certificates, death certificates, and birth, death, marriage, & divorce verification letters.

TXSOS Seal

All Texas government filing fees included in the price.

100 Satisfaction Guarantee

Money back guarantee if we don’t file your application within the time frame you pay for.

Document Courier

Courier of all your documents to any shipping center (return shipping costs not included).

Cellphone Email

Application status updates by email or text.

Austin Texas

We’re based in Austin, TX, so no middleman for you to go through.

Phone and Email Support

American phone and email support five days a week.

Photos

We’ll email you a photo of your documents before we mail them back to you.

Download Birth Certificate Order Form

*Please add $40 to the above price if you order a specialty Texas heirloom birth certificate.

**To order additional Texas birth certificates for the same person the cost is $125 per copy if ordered at the same time.

 

Texas Birth Certificate Identification Requirements

Acceptable Forms
Of Identification

From the State of Texas Vital Statistics main website these are the only acceptable forms of identification (see the detailed list below) that you can scan and email us that we can physically present to the Texas Department of State Health Services office to be able to obtain an official raised seal Texas birth certificate certified copy on your behalf. Identification is required to establish proof of identity of the person that is requesting a protected Texas Vital Records search.

Acceptable identification must contain the applicant’s full legal name and photograph, and you must provide to the State of Texas one of the following:

  1. One item from Group A
  2. Two items from Group B, or
  3. One item from Group B and two items from Group C.

Group A: Primary Identification

All identification requirement items must be current and valid (meaning they cannot be expired) and contain the applicant’s name and photograph that establishes the applicant’s identity.

Must Provide One:

  1. United States issued driver’s license (any U.S state)
  2. Federal or state identification card (any U.S state)
  3. United States passport
  4. U.S military uniformed services identification card
  5. U.S concealed handgun license identification card (any U.S state)
  6. U.S pilot’s license identification card (any U.S state)
  7. Federal, state or city law enforcement employment identification card, or employment badge accompanied by employment identification card
  8. Offender identification card issued by the Department of Criminal Justice correctional facility or institution
  9. Department of Homeland Security, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued:
    1. Employment Authorization Document (EAD)
    2. Permanent Resident Card – front and back (Green Card)
    3. Travel Documents
      1. Re-entry permit
      2. Refugee travel permit
      3. Advance parole
    4. SENTRI card
    5. U.S. citizen identification card
  10. United States Department of State issued:
    1. Border crossing card (B1 for business or pleasure or B2 medical purposes)
    2. or Visa

Group B: Secondary ID Type

Must provide two items of different types may be used to establish proof of identity. These forms combined must confirm the applicant’s name, signature, or identifiable photo of the applicant.

Must Provide Two:

  1. Any primary identification that is expired.
  2. Current student identification
  3. Signed social security card, or numident
  4. DD Form 214 Certificate of Release
  5. Medicaid or Medicare card
  6. Veterans Affairs card (VA)
  7. Medical insurance card
  8. Foreign passport accompanied by a Visa issued by the United States Department of State (USDOS).
  9. Foreign passport in accordance with the United States Department of State, Visa Waiver Program.
  10. Certified birth certificate from the Department of State (FS-240, DS-1350 or FS-545)
  11. Private company employment identification card.
  12. Form I-94 accompanied by the applicant’s Visa or Passport.
  13. Mexican voter registration card.
  14. Foreign Identification with identifiable photo of applicant
    • MatrÍcula Consular is not accepted as any form of identification

Group C: Supporting ID’s

Items of different types may be used to establish proof of identity. Two of these forms combined with one from Group B must confirm the applicant’s name, signature, or identifiable photo of the applicant.

Must Provide Two Combined With One From Group B:

  1. Expired secondary identification from Group B.
  2. Recent utility bill with current address.
  3. Recent paycheck stub.
  4. Public assistance applications or letters.
  5. Signed valid voter’s registration card.
  6. Police report of stolen identification.
  7. Official school transcript.
  8. Bank account statement.
  9. Social security letter.
  10. Marriage license.
  11. Divorce decree.
  12. Certified birth certificate from Department of State (FS-240, DS-1350, or FS-545), or from another state other than Texas or other country.
  13. Automobile insurance card.
  14. Lease agreement.
  15. Loan or installment payment contract.
  16. Promissory notes or loan contracts.
  17. Court order.
  18. Property titles or liens.
  19. Automobile titles.
  20. Library card.
  21. Fishing or hunting license.
  22. Recent medical records or bills.
  23. Auto registration.
  24. Religious records with signature of religious official.
  25. Recent rent receipt with address and name.
  26. Recent cell phone bill or contract.
  27. Federal, state, or local tax records.
  28. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) notices or correspondence.