Any town, county, or state/province in which the birth occurred can issue their birth certificates. A birth certificate NYC is issued by New York City. When you have a birth certificate, it is a legal and public document establishing your identity, which can be accessed by others in only specific situations for informational purposes only, which is referred to as an heirloom certificate, to chart genealogy or family history. You must check with the authorities, such as the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Office of Vital Records, to obtain their requirements, for instance, to receive a birth certificate NYC.

To obtain a certified copy of your birth certificate, you must have the legal authority to obtain it. Anyone who has their names on the birth certificate, such as the child and its parents, have such authority and will be eligible to obtain a certified birth certificate. Typically, a certified birth certificate contains a seal that might be raised, embossed, impressed or multicolored.

The birth certificate is not an analysis of biological data which can prove the true identity as a biometric, such as a photograph, fingerprints, face recognition, and DNA. Based on a birth certificate, an individual can obtain other documents which are considered a more secure form of identification, such as the aforementioned biometrical data.

A birth certificate can be confused with a certificate of live birth. Assuming the child was born in a hospital, a Certificate of Live Birth is essentially the hospital's record of birth which contains the baby's and parent's name, gender doctor and hospital's name, race, date of birth and the person preparing the record. This information is entered into the hospital's database and transferred to the State Register (aka Office of Vital Statistics) where the Official Birth Certificate is created. Therefore, it is critical that someone (the parents) must make it clear that the information on the Certificate of Live Birth is accurate. The live birth certificate is primarily a medical record, which is an unofficial draft of the birth certificate but will not meet the legal requirements of a birth certificate.

In the United States, birth certificates are not effectively coordinated with death certificates. Only the Social Security Administration needs this coordination. Because of the bureaucratic delays in reconciling these two certificates, this accounts for the criminal activity of the identity of a recently deceased person to be adopted by another person.

Some of the reasons why a birth certificate may be necessary are, working for a government agency, registering for school, obtaining a driver’s license, marriage, signing up for sports, passport, social security card, and general identification.