Editorial Policy and Source Standards

Our purpose

USVC publishes plain-language guides to help people understand how to request birth certificates from state vital-records agencies. The guides are free to read. They are separate from the paid application assistance service and are written to explain the official process, not to promise an outcome.

What our guides cover

Each guide explains who may request a record, what information and identification may be required, the available filing paths, how corrections and adoption records work, and where to find official forms. We also explain when a rule is controlled by a state agency, a county office, or a local health department.

Our current guides cover birth certificates in 13 states. We add a state only after reviewing the issuing agency's published requirements.

Source standards

We prefer primary sources: the state health department, the state vital-records office, the county or local office that issues the record, official application forms, and published statutes or regulations. Every guide links to the official source pages used for its factual claims.

We do not use forums, social posts, competitor pages, or AI-generated summaries as sources for a requirement. If an official page is unclear or conflicts with another official page, we say so and direct the reader to the issuing agency for a final answer.

How a guide is created and reviewed

• We identify the agency that controls the record and collect its current published guidance.

• We draft the guide in plain language and attach a source to each factual claim.

• A USVC reviewer checks the draft against the cited official source before publication.

• We publish the source-checked date and update it when we recheck the guide.

Guides are published under the USVC organization byline. We do not invent individual authors, credentials, review counts, or agency endorsements.

Fees, processing times, and eligibility

Government agencies control their own fees, eligibility rules, and processing times. We do not publish a state fee or processing time unless the issuing agency provides a clear, current figure. When a figure is not published, the guide tells you to confirm it with the agency.

The USVC service fee is shown in the order form before payment. Agency fees and shipping are separate. A guide never replaces the agency's own instructions or a legal or genealogical professional's advice.

Updates and corrections

We recheck guides when an agency announces a change and on a periodic review schedule. The source-checked date on each guide shows the last review; it is not a guarantee that an agency will not change a rule afterward.

If you find an error, email support@usvitalcertificates.org with the page URL, the sentence at issue, and an official source if you have one. We review the report and, when warranted, update the page and its source-checked date.

Independence and commercial relationships

Official sources are listed because they are the agency that controls the record or the agency's published guidance, not because of a commercial relationship. We do not sell placements in our guides. USVC earns its service fee only when a customer chooses to use the paid application assistance service.

AI and automation disclosure

We may use AI-assisted tools for outlining, drafting, and plain-language editing. We do not treat AI output as a source. Official sources control the facts, and a USVC reviewer checks each guide against those sources before publication. If you see something that does not match the official source, tell us and we will review it.

Questions

Read more about USVC, browse the birth-certificate guides, or contact support.