South Carolina Birth Certificate: Order a Certified Copy Online

Who may request a South Carolina birth certificate

Section 44-63-80 of the South Carolina Code limits certified copies to a short list, and the state reads it strictly:

• the registrant, once eighteen or older
• a mother or father named on the record
• a legal guardian or legal representative, which includes a custodian or caregiver appointed by a court, the Department of Social Services for children in foster care, an attorney, and agencies or school liaisons serving homeless youth

Brothers, sisters, grandparents and adult children are not on that list. They qualify only after the registrant's death, when immediate family can apply with the original certified death certificate under section 44-63-82. Commercial or speculative purposes are never a proper reason to release a record.

Photo ID and the D-2595 application

The application is sent back unprocessed if it arrives without a copy of a current photo ID, and South Carolina accepts government, school or employer photo identification. Form D-2595 asks for your name, address, email and phone, your relationship (self, parent, legal guardian, legal representative or other) and the purpose of the request. For the record it wants the registrant's name, date of birth, sex, city and county, and each parent's name before first marriage with their state or country of birth. It also asks whether the parents were married and how many children this mother has had in South Carolina. There is no notary block.

Only a long-form certificate is issued

South Carolina stopped printing short-form cards in January 2015. Today every certified copy is a computer-generated long form showing the file number, the name and date of birth, the county and city, the father's name and birthplace, the mother's maiden name and birthplace, and the filing and issue dates. It counts the same as the original record for every purpose. Births become public a hundred years after they occur, and noncertified copies of those older records are available.

Greenville, Charleston, Columbia and the regional offices

The state keeps births from 1915. Any South Carolina vital records office can issue a birth certificate for a birth in any county, so someone born in Charleston can pick up a copy in Greenville. The central office in Columbia both issues certificates and completes corrections, while the regional offices issue certificates and can start a correction that the central office then finishes.

Corrections, legitimation and adoption

A filing error caught during the first year is corrected without a notation; later amendments need documentation, and the changed fields are marked. A name change requires a certified court order. When parents marry after the birth, legitimation needs a certified marriage license and a notarized affidavit from both parents, and an acknowledgment of paternity is not possible if the mother was married during the pregnancy or at the birth. After an adoption a supplementary certificate replaces the original, which is sealed; an adoptee eighteen or older can obtain a noncertified copy of it with a birth parent's consent or proof of death.

How it works when you order with BirthChek

We keep to South Carolina's list. Our order form offers mother, father, legal guardian, custody holder, attorney and family of a deceased registrant, and anyone ordering in one of the legal roles uploads the court order or other document that gives them standing. You add a copy of your photo ID and sign, and BirthChek files the request with the state Office of Vital Records.