Division of Vital Records

The Division of Vital Records (DVR) issues birth, death, marriage and divorce records for Virginians. The Division processes requests for individuals, local, state and federal agencies and research facilities. It issues more than 410,000 vital records annually. A vital record is a person’s first and last identity document. Without it, an individual would be unable to enroll in school or obtain a social security card, driver’s license, passport or employment.

Last year, the DVR helped many Virginia-born people who lived in Louisiana and who needed to evacuate due to Hurricane Katrina obtain copies of their birth certificates at no cost. The Division also helped Louisiana-born evacuees who came to Virginia apply for a birth certificate with their home state.

The DVR reduced the time responding to citizens requests for vital records from five business days to four. Also, as a member of the Virginia Inter-Agency Council on Homelessness, DVR designed a Supplementary Data Sheet which meets the identification requirement for obtaining a birth certificate.