Nebraska · Certified copy
Nebraska Birth Certificate: Order a Certified Copy Online
We prepare your application and file it with the Nebraska Vital Records, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. The office mails the certified copy to you.
- Secure payment
- Encrypted data
- Email support
- Private service — not a government agency
Nebraska at a glance
- Issuing office
- Nebraska Vital Records, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services
- Who can order
- 10 relationships · see the list
- Standard processing
- 3–4 Weeks
- What you need
- Photo ID, names, date and place of birth, parents' names
- Expedited processing
- Set by the office
- Proof of relationship
- Required for some relationships
A certified copy is the document most agencies accept for a passport, a driver's license, school enrollment or benefits. Nebraska issues it for births recorded in the state.
Nebraska birth certificate: proper purpose, Omaha and Lincoln
Nebraska issues a certified birth certificate for a proper purpose: the registrant's own use, legal use by the registrant, family members or a legal representative, or use with the registrant's consent. Unless the record is your own or your child's, you send proof of the relationship. In Omaha, the Douglas County Health Department issues copies of Douglas County births.
What counts as a proper purpose in Nebraska
Nebraska Statute 71-612 allows copies for any proper purpose, and the department's rules spell out what that means: the registrant's personal use, legal use by the registrant, the registrant's family or a legal representative, use with the registrant's consent, research, law enforcement and child support, genealogy, government work and the news media. For these rules, family means a parent, spouse or child, and a birth parent of an adopted child is excluded. The HHS-88 application asks for both your purpose and your relationship.
Proof of relationship and identification
If the certificate is not your own or your child's, include proof of how you are connected, for example your own birth certificate when ordering a parent's record, or a marriage record when ordering a spouse's. Every applicant shows one current government-issued photo ID. Without one, Nebraska takes a document from its first list, such as an insurance or Medicaid card, a school record, a car or voter registration or a tribal enrollment card, together with a recent document from its second list, such as a utility bill, bank statement or pay stub. Expired documents are refused.
Omaha, Douglas County and Lincoln
The Douglas County Health Department in Omaha issues certificates for births in Douglas County only, and not for anyone who was adopted; it serves the registrant, parents, children and spouses, and its records go back to 1873. In Lincoln, Lancaster County directs residents to the state Vital Records Office on Centennial Mall South, which can issue a birth certificate for anywhere in Nebraska. The state has registered births since 1904, although certificates in their present form begin in 1912, and many 1904 to 1911 entries list the child under the father's name.
Certified copies and family history
Certified copies are printed on security paper. The only other version of a birth record is a view-only copy stamped as not a legal document. Genealogists can obtain a record without consent once the registrant has been dead for fifty years or more; before that, written consent from the registrant or family is required.
Adult adoptees, paternity and late registrations
Nebraska-born adoptees twenty-one or older can request their original birth certificate. If the relinquishment or consent was signed before September 1, 1988, it is released only when the birth parents' consent forms are on file; for later adoptions it is released unless a nonconsent form has been filed, or by court order. A father can be added at the hospital or later through Vital Records, a later marriage of the birth parents legitimates the child, and births never filed in their first year use the delayed registration process.
How it works when you order with BirthChek
Our Nebraska form asks for your purpose as well as your relationship, and if the record is not your own or your child's, your order page asks for the linking document. You enter the city and county of birth and both parents' names, upload your ID and sign, and BirthChek files the request with Nebraska Vital Records.
Facts checked October 24, 2026 against the sources below.
Sources
- Vital records — Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services – Vital Records
- Application for a certified copy of a birth certificate (HHS-88) — Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services – Vital Records
- Identification help — Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services – Vital Records
- Neb. Rev. Stat. 71-612: certified copies — Nebraska Legislature
- Neb. Rev. Stat. 43-146.04: adoptee access to original certificate — Nebraska Legislature
- Family history — Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services – Vital Records
- Birth and death certificates — Douglas County Health Department
- Where to get a birth certificate — Lancaster County
Where to get a Nebraska birth certificate: state and local offices
Certified copies for births recorded in Nebraska are issued by the Nebraska Vital Records, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services.
We take orders for births anywhere in Nebraska, including Omaha (Douglas County).
Who can order a Nebraska birth certificate
- You, the person named
- Father
- Mother
- Son
- Daughter
- Spouse
- Legal Guardian · proof needed
- Attorney · proof needed
- Other · proof needed
- My relationship is not listed · proof needed
Relationships marked "proof needed" must send proof of the relationship with the application; we tell you what counts after you order.
If your relationship is not listed, the office may refuse the application or ask for a court order.
Reasons to request a Nebraska birth certificate
- Court Proceeding
- Driver's License
- Employment
- Entrance into Armed Forces
- Genealogy
- Insurance
- International Use
- Marriage License
- Passport
- Retirement
- School Entrance
- Social Security
- Veterans Benefits
- Welfare Assistance
- Working Papers
What you need to order a Nebraska birth certificate
- A photo ID: driver's license, state ID, passport or military ID
- Full name on the certificate and date of birth
- City or county of birth
- Both parents' names, including the mother's maiden name
- A debit or credit card
- Proof of your relationship, for the relationships marked above
Prefer to order directly? Find the office in the CDC directory
Ready to order your Nebraska birth certificate?
About ten minutes. Have your photo ID nearby.