California Marriage Records Grab A Free Copy Online

By Ben Kingsley


For those individuals who want a certificate of marriage in California, they may get one from the Public Health Vital Record Divisions. These records are usually used to establish and serve as supporting documents to authenticate a person's identity. Some would also use the certified copies to claim spousal benefit, death and retirement benefit. The Records Division issues 2 types of copies - Authorized and Informational. Both are certified copies.

Authorized copies are copies that only certain individuals can obtain and can be used to establish the identity of the parties named in the certificate. Under the California Law, these individuals are those: that have legal affinity to the registrant including their parents or legal guardians, children and siblings, individuals that were handed with a court order such as an attorney or an agency in compliance to the requirements of the Court, law enforcement agencies who need the document in order to conduct their business, those individual(s) appointed by the court to act on behalf of the registrant and those individuals that are agents of a funeral establishment. For those individuals not mentioned above, they are only entitled to obtain an information copy. Informational copies have the same content but have a legend that indicates that it is not a valid document to establish the person's identity.

Each marriage record request costs about $14. For those who need a copy of Dissolution of marriage, the cost is $13. For affidavit to amend marriage certificate, the fee is $20 but this can be waived in certain instances. All requests must include the request form, a notarized sworn statement and a money order or check for payment. The Department does not accept cash and is not responsible for lost transactions.

Processing time ranges from 6 months onwards for marriage certificates and 2 months for amendments as the Department is experiencing heavy volume of requests. For marriages that took place recently, processing time can be shortened as the certificates are already imaged and retrieval is faster. Those who need the copies can also go to the County Recorder Office to request for their certificates. Cost and fees for the copies are different and might vary from one county to another.

To request for a copy of the marriage certificate, one can go to the CDPH Records Division. The office issues public types of marriage certificate. Confidential marriage certificate copies are only accessible by those registrants or parties named in the certificate and available from the clerk office of the county that issued the certificate. The person requesting the certificate should download the pamphlet or guide from the official site and follow the instructions indicated therein. Include the form and other documents together with a money order or check to the Office. Only checks issued by a US bank or of the USPS are accepted. Those requests that are not complete will be returned. Records with no results will be sent a No Public Records Certificate, as fees are not refundable.

As the CDPH is experiencing heavy volume for marriage certificates, processing can take up to 6 months. For those who urgently require marriage and divorce records, they can send their marriage request to the County Recorder's Office and divorce request to the Superior Court Office. One can also check other online search portals that offer searches for private and public records. This is by far the most convenient and fastest way for one to get the information they need.




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