Virginia Marriage and Divorce Records: How to Get a Copy (2026)

Virginia treats a marriage or divorce record as restricted for 25 years and public after that. Code of Virginia § 32.1-271 releases the state's marriage, divorce, and annulment records to the public once 25 years have elapsed, while the divorce case file at the circuit court is a separate layer that § 17.1-208 already opens to any person.

Information last verified on 2026-08-04. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

This article covers Virginia records only. It explains how to get a copy of a record, not how to get divorced. For the substantive law on grounds, waiting periods, and property division, see Virginia divorce laws.

Who Holds Virginia Marriage and Divorce Records

Virginia runs a two-layer system, and knowing which layer you need saves the most time.

The Office of Vital Records at the Virginia Department of Health, in Richmond, issues certified copies of the marriage certificate and of a short divorce certificate. These are the documents that prove an event happened. They are what Social Security, the DMV, a passport office, or an insurer normally asks for.

The circuit court clerk in the county or city where the case was heard holds the divorce case file: the complaint, any property settlement agreement, custody and support orders, and the final decree. Only that file tells you what the divorce actually decided. If a lender wants to see who got the house, or you need the support terms, the state certificate will not help you; the decree will.

Marriage licenses also start at a circuit court. The clerk of the circuit court issues the license, the officiant returns it after the ceremony, and the clerk forwards the record to the state. That is why the VDH application asks you to name the circuit court where the license was issued.

Getting a Marriage Certificate From Virginia

The Office of Vital Records issues certified marriage copies. The published fee is $15.00 per certified copy of a vital record issued, and Virginia charges that same $15.00 for a search of the vital-records system when no certified copy is produced. The department's own application form still carries an older $12.00 figure in its printed instructions, so pay the amount VDH lists on its current fee page rather than the amount printed on the form, and confirm before mailing a check.

You have four routes:

• Online, through the VDH ordering system at vr-fhs.vdh.virginia.gov.
• By mail, using form VS6MD, sent to the Office of Vital Records, P.O. Box 1000, Richmond, VA 23218-1000.
• In person, at the Richmond office.
• Expedited, through VitalChek, which VDH names on its FAQ page for faster service at additional cost.

Every applicant must send an enlarged, legible photocopy of their own identification. The form warns that a false application for a vital record is a felony, and it states that the State Registrar reserves the right, citing § 32.1-271C, to accept or deny any application submitted. That citation is the form's own. Subsection (C) of the statute is actually the appeal-and-petition provision, which is the route you use if the State Registrar denies disclosure: you may petition the circuit court where you live or where the event occurred for an order compelling disclosure.

Pro tip: If a foreign consulate, an immigration process, or an overseas wedding venue is asking you to prove that you are not already married, you are looking for the Single Status Letter, which is an option on the same VS6MD marriage form. It is a statement about what the Virginia record system does and does not contain, not a marriage certificate.

Getting a Virginia Divorce Record

Decide first which document you need.

For the decree and the terms, contact the circuit court clerk in the county or independent city where the divorce was granted. Section 17.1-208 provides that, except as otherwise provided by law, records maintained by circuit court clerks are open to inspection in the clerk's office by any person, and that the clerk furnishes copies. Clerks charge a per-page copying fee plus a certification fee; ask the specific clerk's office for its current schedule, since practice varies from courthouse to courthouse.

For the state divorce certificate, use the same VS6MD form and the same $15.00 fee. The state's divorce records run from 1918 to the present. The form asks for both parties' names, the date of the divorce, and the circuit court where it was granted, so gather that before applying.

If the divorce predates 1918, the state has nothing. Go to the circuit court clerk, and for genealogical work go to the Library of Virginia, which holds records the Office of Vital Records does not have.

The 25-Year Rule and What Actually Becomes Public

This is Virginia's defining feature. Section 32.1-271(D) states that when 25 years have elapsed after the date of death, marriage, divorce, or annulment, the records of these events in the custody of the State Registrar shall, unless precluded from release by statute or court order, or at law-enforcement request, become public information.

That same subsection says what then happens to the paper. Original records in the State Registrar's custody that become public information are turned over to the Library of Virginia for safekeeping and for public access alongside other state archival records, with the Registrar keeping copies for its own administrative and disclosure purposes. That is the practical consequence of the 25-year mark: an older Virginia record becomes an archives request rather than a vital-records order.

Two things follow.

First, inside the 25-year window the certificate is not a public record. VDH applies a family-relationship gate, and its FAQ describes eligibility as immediate family members only: mother, father, current spouse, child, brother, sister, and grandparents, with valid identification. The VS6MD form's relationship checkboxes track that list closely, adding self, adult child, adult brother, adult sister, legal representative with proof, and an "other, specify" line that puts the burden on you to explain the request.

Second, the online index is a separate layer with its own timing. Subsection H directs the State Registrar to maintain a public online index of names, dates, and locality that is public from the time the Registrar receives it. Only the linked image of the underlying record waits for the 25-year mark. So a recent marriage or divorce can be findable by name in the index while the certificate itself is still restricted to the family list.

Watch out: The 25-year clock controls the certificate, not the index. Subsection H directs the State Registrar to maintain a public online index of names, dates, and locality that is public from the time the Registrar receives it. Only the linked image of the underlying record waits for the 25-year mark. So the index can confirm that a recent event exists while the certificate behind it stays restricted. See our guide on how to find out if someone is married or divorced for the honest limits, including why commercial background-check products are unreliable on this specific data point.

When a Virginia Divorce File Is Sealed

The court file being open by default does not mean it always stays open. Code of Virginia § 20-124, titled Sequestration of record, allows a court in a divorce or related domestic-relations proceeding, on a party's motion, to order the record or any agreement of the parties filed in it to be sealed and withheld from public inspection. Once that happens, access is limited to the parties, their attorneys, and others the judge determines have a proper interest.

So a search that turns up a docket entry but no viewable documents is not necessarily an error at the clerk's office. It can mean a judge sequestered the file. The practical response is to ask the clerk what the file's status is rather than assuming the record was lost.

If you are approaching the court file as a records request rather than as a party, the mechanics of Virginia public-records access are worth understanding first; see Virginia public records laws.

Older Virginia Records and Genealogy

The Library of Virginia is the destination for anything the Office of Vital Records does not hold, including early marriage material and pre-1918 divorce material. Circuit court clerks also retain marriage registers going back well before state-level registration, which is why the federal directory of state vital-records offices notes that a clerk may hold records neither the state office nor the Library of Virginia has.

There is a live inconsistency worth naming: VDH's FAQ lists marriage records as 1853 to the present, while the CDC's Virginia page says the state office holds marriage records filed after June 14, 1912. Both are official sources. Because Virginia's marriage registration was interrupted in the late nineteenth century, the safest approach for a pre-1912 marriage is to start with the circuit court clerk where the license was issued, then the Library of Virginia, and to call VDH before paying a $15.00 search fee for a year the state may not cover.

Related Virginia Records

Common-law marriage is not available in Virginia, which matters here because there is no license or certificate to look up for a relationship that was never licensed. The background is in Virginia common-law marriage.

Virginia's death records follow a different and more restrictive path than marriage and divorce; see Virginia death records. For how other states handle the same questions, start at the marriage and divorce records by state hub, or read the step-by-step how to get a copy of your marriage certificate walkthrough.

Disclaimer

This article provides general legal information about Virginia marriage and divorce records, verified against official sources on 2026-08-04. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Fees and processing times change; confirm current amounts with the Virginia Department of Health or the relevant circuit court clerk before sending payment. For advice about a specific situation, consult a lawyer licensed in Virginia.

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Last updated: 2026-08-04.