In South Dakota, if you want a copy of your birth certificate,
all you have to do is fill out this form and send in $15.
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all you have to do is fill out this form and send in $15.
.
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Unless you've been adopted.
Then you have no access to your original birth certificate.
If you want it, you first have to call the State Dept of Health and ask for vital records in Pierre, give them information and then wait to see if they are willing to sign a release of information.
If they decide they'll allow you a release of information, you'll receive a signed form like this one:
They'll also include a cover letter with instructions about what else you have to do.
It will look something like this:
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Then you have to sign a release for confidential information
and have it notarized by a Notary Public or Clerk of Courts.
That form looks like this:
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Once you've done all that, you actually have to
petition the court of the original adoption to open the confidential records.
That form looks like this:
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If you find your way through all that maze of paperwork, complete it and petition the court, it is then ultimately up to the judge to decide if you can have the information and how much information to give you. He has total control over the file and can decide to give you no access at all.
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If you complete all the paperwork and the judge is willing to sign the court order for a release of confidential adoption records, then you can finally fill out the application for a birth certificate and send that and all the other paperwork along with $15 to Pierre.
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They will then send you a copy of your original birth certificate.
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