Nevada

Summary

Nevada denies adult adoptees unrestricted access to their own original birth certificates. Access to an OBC in Nevada is available only by court order.

Nevada maintains a state adoption reunion registry that adoptees and birth relatives may use for obtaining mutually consensual identifying information. It is available to adult adoptees and “relatives within third degree of consanguinity.”

Relevant Nevada Law: Original Birth Certificates

§ 440.310. Certified reports and other documents pertaining to adoption: Duties of State Registrar; opening of sealed documents upon order of court

1. Whenever the State Registrar receives a certified report of adoption or amendment of adoption filed in accordance with the provisions of NRS 127.157 or the laws of another state or foreign country, or a certified copy of the adoption decree, concerning a person born in Nevada, the State Registrar shall prepare and file a supplementary certificate of birth in the new name of the adopted person which shows the adoptive parents as the parents and seal and file the report or decree and the original certificate of birth.

2. Whenever the State Registrar receives a certified report of adoption, amendment or annulment of an order or decree of adoption from a court concerning a person born in another state, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, a territory or possession of the United States, or Canada, the report must be forwarded to the office responsible for vital statistics in the person’s place of birth.

3. Whenever the State Registrar receives a certified report of adoption or amendment of adoption filed in accordance with the provisions of NRS 127.157 concerning a person born in a foreign country other than Canada, the State Registrar shall, if the State Registrar receives evidence that:

(a) The person being adopted is a citizen of the United States; and
(b) The adoptive parents are residents of Nevada,

prepare and file a supplementary certificate of birth as described in subsection 1 and seal and file the report.

4. Sealed documents may be opened only upon an order of the court issuing the adoption decree, expressly so permitting, pursuant to a petition setting forth the reasons therefor.

5. Except as otherwise provided in subsection 2, upon the receipt of a certified copy of a court order of annulment of adoption, the State Registrar shall seal and file the order and supplementary certificate of birth and, if the person was born in Nevada, restore the original certificate to its original place in the files.

Relevant Nevada Law: Adoption Records

§ 127.140. Confidentiality of hearings, files and records
1.  Except as otherwise provided in NRS 239.0115, all hearings held in proceedings under this chapter are confidential and must be held in closed court, without admittance of any person other than the petitioners, their witnesses, the director of an agency, or their authorized representatives, attorneys and persons entitled to notice by this chapter, except by order of the court.

2. The files and records of the court in adoption proceedings are not open to inspection by any person except:

(a) Upon an order of the court expressly so permitting pursuant to a petition setting forth the reasons therefor;
(b) If a natural parent and the child are eligible to receive information from the State Register for Adoptions; or
(c) As provided pursuant to subsections 3, 4 and 5.

3. An adoptive parent who intends to file a petition pursuant to NRS 127.1885 or 127.1895 to enforce, modify or terminate an agreement that provides for postadoptive contact may inspect only the portions of the files and records of the court concerning the agreement for postadoptive contact.

4. A natural parent who intends to file a petition pursuant to NRS 127.1885 to prove the existence of or to enforce an agreement that provides for postadoptive contact or to file an action pursuant to NRS 41.509 may inspect only the portions of the files or records of the court concerning the agreement for postadoptive contact.

5. The portions of the files and records which are made available for inspection by an adoptive parent or natural parent pursuant to subsection 3 or 4 must not include any confidential information, including, without limitation, any information that identifies or would lead to the identification of a natural parent if the identity of the natural parent is not included in the agreement for postadoptive contact.