The five boroughs are not Albany

Place of death controls the desk. If the death was in one of the five boroughs, you order from the NYC Health Department. If the death was in a New Jersey hospital, on Long Island, in Westchester, or anywhere else in New York State, NYC Health will not have the record, even if the person lived in the city.

NYC Health, 1951 to present

NYC Health issues certified copies for deaths in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island. Each copy is $15. Additional copies are also $15. The Fees page lists separate processing charges for online, mail, and in-person orders. Those charges are on top of the $15. Online orders go through VitalChek, the vendor the city names. You pay the copy fee plus their processing and shipping. This desk takes no cut.

• Entitled requestors include a spouse, child, domestic partner, informant, or person in control of the disposition. Attorneys retained by those people may order. Others must document a right to the certificate.
• Bring current photo ID. Confirm the current ID list on the NYC Health ordering pages.
• Funeral directors can often obtain copies in the first year. If that already happened, ask before you place a second order.
• Check order status through the city's eVital status page linked from NYC Health.

Older records, and everywhere else

Deaths before 1951 are not at NYC Health. They sit with the NYC Department of Records, Municipal Archives. Confirm the cutoff year on nyc.gov before you mail the Health Department a nineteenth-century request.

For a death outside the five boroughs, use the office where the death occurred. New York State Vital Records in Albany handles the rest of the state, not the city. Nassau, Suffolk, and Westchester have their own county desks. A New Jersey hospital death is a New Jersey record.

Confirm the $15 copy fee and any processing charge on the NYC Health Fees page before you pay. Fees change. This desk does not take a cut from the vendor.