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.
I would like my original birth certificate in Nevada and i know I need a court order. I live in Texas, where do I need to get this court order? Here in Texas Or Nevada?
If you were born and adopted in Nevada, the court order would need to come from the Nevada court where the adoption was finalized. If the birth was in Nevada but the adoption was in a different state, that gets a bit more complicated and it would be tough for anyone to figure out without getting a lawyer involved.
I was born/adopted in Nevada; fostered/adopted through Catholic Charities Las Vegas, but the adoption never finalized. I managed to get my obc from Nevada, but not a lot of answers from Catholic Charities about the information contained in my file of record with them. QUESTION: Do I have a legal right to the information in my file? QUESTION: Does confidentiality (per Section 127.140) still apply if all parental parties are deceased? How can I get access to review what is in my file? Thank you.
I was also adopted in Nevada and now have the names of both my birth parents
I was born and adopted in Nevada. With the help of DNA from Ancestry (and several amazing Search Angels), we’ve been able to find a name for my birth mother. She was apparently a very reclusive woman. As of yet, we’ve not been able to positively identify if she’s deceased or not. Would the state confirm or deny our finding without getting a court order?
I am a BM searching for my son. I have no info on whether he was adopted in NV although he was born in NV. What steps should I take to locate him?
That sounds familiar. I did an ancestryDNA test to search utilizing the assistance of search angels and dna detectives.
Hi Gary,
Not sure that reply was meant for my question or if so would you explain why.
I gave birth to 2 children in the state of Nevada. I remarried and my husband at the the time adopted my children this was in the late 80s. My child want there birth names back. There bio father passed away in 2005. How can I help them get there OBC back so they can change there names. They are now 33 and 34 yrs of age.
They can start online to the Nevada Office of Vital Statistics and request their OBCs. Good luck.
I just learned that NY changed its laws to give out the preadoption birth certificates to the adoptee and others. Is there anything in the works in NV or NC for such a law to be passed. I have adopted family members from both of those states.
Both of those states have had legislation introduced in the last two years, but the legislation has been badly flawed (the North Carolina bill only applied to adoptees over 40 who knew who their birthparents were). I’m not sure who is leading those efforts or if it is organized.