Michigan Vital Records and Personal Documents, Agency by Agency

Most personal-records questions in Michigan turn out to be routing questions. The document exists; the difficulty is knowing which office issues it, who is allowed to receive a copy, and what has to happen first. This page maps the Michigan agencies that hold identity and personal records, defines the terms that appear on their applications, and describes how the main processes connect to each other. It covers records about a person: vital certificates, legal names, state-issued identification, criminal history, and authenticated documents sent abroad. It does not cover property records, business filings, or court case files in general.

Which Michigan office holds which record

Four agencies and one court division handle nearly all of it.

The MDHHS Division of Vital Records and Health Statistics is the state registrar. It holds Michigan birth, death, marriage, and divorce records and issues certified copies through its record-ordering service. County clerks and local registrars hold copies of records for events that happened in their jurisdiction, and a county clerk can often produce a certified copy faster than the state office.

The family division of the circuit court in the county where a person lives handles legal name changes. The State Court Administrative Office publishes the statewide forms for that process on its name change forms page, and every Michigan circuit court uses the same numbered PC forms.

The Secretary of State issues driver’s licenses, state ID cards, REAL ID credentials, enhanced licenses, and vehicle titles. It also runs the Office of the Great Seal, which authenticates documents for use in other countries.

The Michigan State Police maintains the state criminal history repository, runs the public ICHAT search, and administers the automatic set-aside process created by the Clean Slate laws.

A practical consequence of this split: one life event usually touches several offices. A person who changes their name in circuit court then deals separately with the Social Security Administration, the Secretary of State, and the state registrar, and each of those wants a certified copy of the court order rather than a photocopy.

Terms that appear on Michigan record applications

Certified copy. A copy issued by the office that holds the original, bearing a raised or printed seal. Agencies that verify identity accept certified copies and reject photocopies and scans.

Authenticated copy. A step above a certified copy, prepared for use outside the United States. Michigan charges $42 for an authenticated copy of a vital record and $26 for each additional authenticated copy ordered at the same time, under MCL 333.2891.

State registrar and local registrar. The state registrar is the MDHHS office in Lansing. A local registrar is a county or city official who registers events occurring in that jurisdiction. Both can issue certified copies, and the fee a local registrar charges can be lower than the state fee but not higher, except in a charter county with more than 1,500,000 residents (MCL 333.2891).

Amendment versus new certificate. Correcting an error on an existing record is an amendment. Replacing the record after an adoption, a parentage order, or a name change for a minor produces a new certificate. The two carry different fees and different documentation requirements.

Set aside. Michigan’s term for what other states call expungement. A set-aside conviction is removed from the public record but remains visible to law enforcement and to a small set of authorized users.

Apostille and certificate of authority. Two forms of authentication issued by the Office of the Great Seal. An apostille goes to countries that are party to the Hague Convention; a certificate of authority goes to countries that are not.

Ordering birth, death, marriage, and divorce records

Michigan sets vital record fees by statute rather than by agency policy, so the numbers are the same at every state counter. Under MCL 333.2891(4), a search of one year that includes one certified copy costs $34. Additional identical copies ordered at the same time cost $16 each. Searching an additional year costs $12. An expedited search adds $12, and an expedited request for an authenticated copy adds $25. The $34 search fee is charged whether or not the record is found; when it is not found, the state registrar issues an official statement to that effect instead of a certificate.

Two fee reductions are written into the same section. A person 65 or older pays $14 for a search and one certified copy of their own birth record. A person who presents a category 1 homeless verification letter on a public service agency’s letterhead, along with the photo identification card generated by the federal homeless management information system, receives one certified copy of their own vital record at no charge (MCL 333.2891(19)).

Eligibility is narrower for birth records than for death or marriage records. Michigan restricts who may receive a certified copy of a birth record, and the state registrar can require proof of the applicant’s identity before releasing one. MDHHS explains the current eligibility categories and accepted identification on its vital record ordering page, along with the mail, in-person, and online channels and their processing times.

Changing a legal name in circuit court

Michigan handles adult and minor name changes as a court petition, not an administrative filing. MCL 711.1 gives the family division of the circuit court authority to enter a name change order for a person who has lived in the county for at least one year, who petitions in writing, and who shows a sufficient reason for the change and no fraudulent intent.

The petition itself is form PC 51, and the statute requires a petitioner with a criminal record, including a pending charge, to disclose it in the petition. A petitioner without a criminal record states that in the petition instead. The court may check L.E.I.N. or ICHAT to confirm, and MCL 711.1(1) requires the court, not the petitioner, to absorb the cost of that check.

Publication is the default. Unless the court grants an exception, notice of the hearing is published in a newspaper under the applicable supreme court rule. Courts can waive publication and seal the record in defined circumstances, and the State Court Administrative Office publishes a separate petition form for that request on its name change forms page.

Minors are treated differently. Both parents ordinarily sign the petition; a minor who is 14 or older files written consent to the change; and a court that considers a younger child old enough to express a preference consults the child and weighs what the child says. A custodial parent can proceed on notice alone where the other parent has failed to support and failed to contact the child for two years or more, or has been convicted of specified offenses against the child or a sibling (MCL 711.1(7)).

Filing fees and hearing practices are set county by county. The petition form is uniform statewide; the fee, the fingerprint arrangements some courts require for the background check, and the local scheduling calendar are not.

Updating identity documents after a name change

A signed name change order is the document every other agency asks for. The order does not propagate automatically.

The Secretary of State requires a name-change document when the name on an application differs from the name on the underlying citizenship or legal-presence document. Its REAL ID requirements page lists the acceptable proofs of citizenship or legal presence, among them a valid U.S. passport, a Certificate of Naturalization, and a certified birth certificate issued by the vital records office of the state of birth. It treats the name-change document as an additional item rather than a substitute for any of them. The federal REAL ID enforcement date was May 7, 2025, and Michigan continues to convert credentials after that date.

Amending the birth record is a separate application to the state registrar with its own fee. MCL 333.2891(13) sets a $50 fee to amend a birth record to reflect a documented legal name change for an adult, with a $25 expedited option. Creating a new certificate of birth after an adoption, a parentage judgment, or a legal name change for a minor also costs $50 under MCL 333.2891(9). Michigan does not charge for correcting an error the registrar’s own office made.

The order in which people handle these steps varies, and no agency requires a particular sequence. What each office does require is a certified copy of the order, which is why petitioners commonly order several copies from the circuit court clerk at once.

Criminal records, ICHAT, and set-asides

The Michigan State Police holds the state criminal history record and operates ICHAT, the public search tool that returns Michigan felony and serious misdemeanor convictions. Courts use ICHAT and L.E.I.N. in name change cases; employers and landlords use ICHAT for background screening.

Michigan’s Clean Slate laws added an automatic set-aside process that removes qualifying convictions from the public record without an application. The Michigan State Police Clean Slate page describes the waiting periods: misdemeanors become eligible 7 years after the sentence is imposed, and felonies 10 years after sentencing or after completion of any term of imprisonment, whichever is later. Not more than 2 felony convictions and 4 misdemeanor convictions carrying a maximum of 93 days or more can be set aside automatically.

Whole categories are excluded from the automatic process, including assaultive crimes, serious misdemeanors, crimes of dishonesty, offenses punishable by 10 years or more, offenses involving minors or vulnerable adults, human trafficking violations, and operating-while-intoxicated and commercial vehicle offenses. Convictions outside the automatic track can still be eligible through an application to the sentencing court, which is a separate procedure with its own forms and waiting periods.

A set-aside conviction is removed from public view, not erased. Law enforcement agencies, courts, and certain licensing bodies continue to see it.

Notarization, apostilles, and documents used abroad

Documents sent to a foreign government usually need authentication from the Office of the Great Seal, which sits inside the Secretary of State. The office charges $1 per document for an apostille or a certificate of authority and authenticates Michigan notarized documents with original signatures, certified vital records issued by the state registrar or a county clerk, and certified copies of corporate filings from the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs. Details on appointments and accepted document types are on the Secretary of State’s document authentication page.

Three requirements cause most rejections. A notarized document has to show the notary’s full name, signature, the date of notarization, the commission expiration date, and the county of commission. A document in another language has to be accompanied by a written English translation. Faxed documents and documents issued directly by a court are not accepted for this form of certification.

Whether a destination country needs an apostille or a certificate of authority depends on whether it belongs to the Hague Convention. The Office of the Great Seal issues the correct one based on the country named in the request, which is why the request form asks for the destination.

Specific procedures and topics

Each of the processes above has its own article covering forms, fees, and the order of steps.