Contact: Alex Quintana, Alex.Quintana@state.co.us, 303-692-2164
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FEB. 20, 2020
Feb. 11, 2020 (DENVER, Colo.): Due to recent scams involving third-party vendors that claim to provide certified copies of birth certificates and other official documents at a fee, the StopFraud Colorado program in the Attorney General’s Office and the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Vital Records Section remind consumers to order birth certificates or other vital records through approved channels only.
“Too many consumers pay these unapproved third-party vendors for sub-par service at an exorbitant price. Some consumers spent 3-4 times the fee charged by the state and have to wait longer to get their certificates compared to ordering from the options listed on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s website,” said A. Alex Quintana, Colorado State Registrar and Director of Vital Records.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Vital Records Section is the official source for Colorado birth, death, adoption, fetal death, marriage, civil union, and divorce certificates (birth and death certificates can also be obtained through the county vital records offices located across the state). The Vital Records Section receives roughly 2,800 birth certificate requests every month, half of which come from third-party vendors that charge a fee to simply provide the state’s application, which is separate from the cost that the state requires to process the request. This adversely affects nearly 17,000 consumers annually.
“Third party companies that charge for our free application bottleneck the mail process in our office. For example, the birth certificate fee changed a year ago, but the fraudulent companies do not reflect this update. Our office receives a high volume of orders that contain the incorrect fee, which we cannot accept, so we have to reject the order and return the entire request. This is one of many issues we have with third party companies,” said Sam Vasquez, Certification Supervisor of the Vital Records Section.
Vasquez noted that these unapproved third-party vendors also triple the workload on the Vital Records office, significantly delaying the standard processing time for certificate requests.
There are four options to order a birth certificate from the State of Colorado Vital Records:
All requesting parties must provide valid identification, and proof of relationship.
- Online Orders (3-5 business days to process): The quickest option to order a birth certificate is to place an order through the approved vendors on our site: Vitalchek and GoCertificates. You can place an order on either Vitalchek.com or GoCertificates.com.
- Phone Orders (3-5 business days to process): You can place an order over the phone on their toll free line, 1.866.300.8540 and 1.866.694.0571, option 2, respectively.
- County Vital Records office (varies by office): You may order certified copies of birth and death certificates from any of the county vital record offices located across the state. Visit here to find the contact information for all offices in Colorado.
- Mail Orders (30 business days to process): The application for a birth certificate is free to download on the CDPHE website, which can be access here. Click on “mail orders” to obtain the application. The office must receive a completed application, valid identification, proof of relationship (if applicable) and the fee in order to process the order.
Please visit the website for more information:
https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/cdphe/news/ways-order-vital-records
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