How to Get a Death Certificate in North Carolina

North Carolina limits certified copies to people with a direct connection to the record. Under G.S. 130A-93, these people can order:

• The person's spouse, sibling, parent or grandparent, child or grandchild, or stepparent or stepchild
• A person seeking the record for a legal determination of personal or property rights
• An authorized agent, attorney, or legal representative of anyone above
• A funeral director or funeral service licensee

The state requires proof of identity and proof of eligibility. A spouse must be the current spouse and named on the death certificate. An authorized agent, attorney, or legal representative must send proof. The application lists the proof needed for each relationship.

The law does not name executors or administrators by title. If you are ordering as the estate's representative, contact the office to confirm what proof they need from you.

North Carolina has two places to order: the county Register of Deeds and the state office, NC Vital Records. Each county has a Register of Deeds that keeps copies of death certificates.

County Register of Deeds (usually fastest)

The state says to go to the Register of Deeds in the county where the death occurred, not the county where the person lived. In most cases, the Register of Deeds can issue certificates the same day. A certified copy costs $10 for a death in that county (G.S. 161-10).

If the death happened in a different county, call your local Register of Deeds first. State law (G.S. 130A-93.1) allows an office to print deaths from other NC counties through the state database for $24, but it does not require it. Some offices do this only for recent deaths or only in person, and some ask you to contact the county of death. There is no official statewide list of which offices offer it. Find your county office through the state's county page.

State office: NC Vital Records

The state office has death records from 1930 to the present. Fees are $24 for the first copy (this covers the record search and is nonrefundable, even if no record is found) and $15 for each additional copy of the same certificate.

• Online: Order through VitalChek, the vendor linked from the state order page. VitalChek adds a $13.95 processing fee. One copy costs $37.95 with regular shipping or $57.95 with overnight shipping.
• Phone: Call VitalChek at 1-800-669-8310 (outside the U.S., 1-615-372-6800). Same fees as online.
• Mail: Send the Application for a Copy of a North Carolina Death Certificate (on the order page) to North Carolina Vital Records, 1903 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-1900. Address it to ATTN: VC Certificate Orders. Add a $6.00 nonrefundable VitalChek fee per application, so one copy by mail costs $30. Use a separate application for each person's certificate. Make payment to VitalChek: personal check, credit card, or money order. No cash.
• In person: Cooper Memorial Health Building, 225 N. McDowell St., Raleigh, NC 27603-1382. By appointment only. Book through the appointment calendar on the order page or call 919-733-3000, Option 3. Appointments are 30 minutes, and the last one is at 2:30 p.m. Expedited in-person service adds a $15 fee.

Processing times at the state office: The state's average for deaths from 2022 to present is 2 business days, and for deaths from 1930 to 2021 it is 11 business days. These times are measured from when the request is entered into the system until it ships, so add shipping time. See current processing times.

Mail is the slowest option. The official application warns that mail requests can take up to four months plus mail delivery time. For speed, use a Register of Deeds or order online.

One note on payment: the state's fees page gives different mail payment instructions than the order page and the current application. The order page and application say to pay VitalChek. If you are unsure, call NC Vital Records at 984-236-7268 before you mail anything.

State office phone: General inquiries 919-733-3000; certificate inquiries 984-236-7268. The call center is open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.

• The application, or the details it asks for, including your relationship to the person named on the certificate
• Photo ID. The state requires ID from the person requesting the certificate. By mail, send a legible photocopy.
• If you don't have an accepted photo ID, send legible photocopies of two different forms of secondary ID. The application lists which IDs are accepted.
• Proof of eligibility, such as documents showing your relationship to the person who died, as listed on the application
• Payment. By mail to the state, make it payable to VitalChek.

A county Register of Deeds may ask for different ID or proof. Call the office or check its website before you go.

A certified copy has the State Registrar's signature and a raised Vital Records seal. The state says a certified copy is required for most legal or official purposes, and under state law it has the same evidentiary value as the original.

Uncertified copies are for informational purposes only and are not accepted for legal purposes.

For estate work, such as banks, insurers, court filings, and title transfers, order certified copies.

Here's how the process works after a death in North Carolina:

• The funeral director (or the person acting as funeral director) who first takes custody of the body files the death certificate with the local registrar in the county where the death occurred. The funeral director gets the personal details from the next of kin or the best available source.
• The doctor, physician assistant, nurse practitioner, or medical examiner must complete the cause of death within three days after the death.
• By law, the certificate must be filed within five days after the death. Certificates are filed electronically with the state.

No official source gives an exact number of days before families can first order a copy. Contact the Register of Deeds in the county of death or NC Vital Records to confirm.

Funeral directors are entitled by law to request certified copies. Ask your funeral home whether it can order copies for you.

Banks, insurers, and other institutions often ask for their own certified copy. From the state, extra copies of the same certificate ordered together cost $15 each, while a new order later starts again at $24, so ordering a few at once can save money. For help deciding, see our guide on how many copies.

Once the state accepts a death certificate, it can only be changed through an amendment. You can request one in two ways:

• Through the Register of Deeds in the county where the death occurred. The Register of Deeds charges $10 to prepare an amendment (G.S. 161-10).
• By mail to NC Vital Records, using the Death Certificate Amendment Application. The cost is a $24 nonrefundable search fee plus a $15 amendment fee, $39 total.

By law, NC Vital Records and each Register of Deeds must process an amendment within 30 calendar days after receiving the completed application, the required evidence, and payment (G.S. 130A-118).

Details are on the state's amendment page. Amendment questions: 984-236-7203.

The official ways to get a North Carolina death certificate are:

• The county Register of Deeds in the county where the death occurred
• NC Vital Records, in person by appointment or by mail
• VitalChek, the vendor linked from the state order page, online or at 1-800-669-8310

Unofficial sites cannot issue a certified copy. Start from the state order page or your county's official website.

Searches for North Carolina death certificates also turn up sites such as citydirectory.us, simplytrust.com, everplans.com, legalclarity.org, wikiprocedure.com, piercelaw.com, nolo.com, and ncgenweb.us. Some may be useful reading, but none of them are government offices, and they cannot issue a certified copy.