A San Francisco County marriage certificate certified copy can be obtained in several ways, as detailed below. If you have any questions, please email [email protected] or call +1 (415) 655-9455.

Please note that informational marriage certificates that bear a disclaimer—such as “INFORMATIONAL, NOT A VALID DOCUMENT TO ESTABLISH IDENTITY”—are not eligible for California Secretary of State apostille certification. You must obtain an official certified copy of the marriage certificate.

Please also note that the certified copy will only be issued by the county in which the marriage license was purchased, regardless of the county in which the ceremony was performed.

IMPORTANT: If the marriage was confidential, only the parties to the marriage can obtain a certified copy of the marriage certificate, and only by appearing in person at the Assessor-Recorder’s office. The only exception to this is if another individual is authorized by court order. The instructions below pertain to non-confidential marriages only.

Fastest: In Person

The fastest way to obtain a certified copy of a San Francisco County marriage certificate is to pick it up in person at the County Assessor-Recorder’s Office. You are only allowed to pick up a certified copy of a marriage certificate for yourself and your child, legal ward, parent, grandchild, grandparent, sibling, spouse, or domestic partner, as well as any clients who have extended power of attorney to you.

If you plan to obtain the marriage certificate in person, you can drop in or book an appointment in advance. Bring a valid ID to the main Assessor-Recorder’s office:

1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place
City Hall, Room 190
San Francisco, CA 94102

In case you are unable to pick up the certificate in person, we can obtain the certified copy for you. You will need appear before a notary either in person or through remote online notarization to sign a limited power of attorney that gives us authority to retrieve the marriage certificate. We can help to arrange an electronic notarization—please contact us to discuss.

Once we receive the notarized power of attorney (via mail for in-person notarization or via certified PDF for an electronic notarization), our authorized agent will travel to the Assessor-Recorder’s Office to retrieve the certified copy of the marriage certificate.

Medium: Order Online

You can now order a certified copy of the San Francisco County marriage certificate online through the SF Assessor-Recorder’s website without needing to get your application notarized. You fill out the application online and enter identifying details, such as your social security number and date of birth, to prove your identity.

On the application form, check the boxes for Name of Person Receiving Copies(If Different from above) and Mailing Address for Copies (If Different from above), and then enter the information for our associate in Sacramento:

Christine Amos
2511 Carlsbad Ave.
Sacramento, CA 95821

Then complete the application steps and submit payment online. We generally receive the certified San Francisco marriage certificate in about a week.

You can also order through a California-approved third-party vendor such as VitalChek, State Vital Records, or Vital Records Online. You can choose to have it delivered to yourself and then mail it to us, or you can send it directly to us. This option is not as quick as ordering through the Assessor-Recorder’s website—some third-party processors are quoting up to six weeks or more to deliver your certified copy. Plus, these sites usually require that you get your application notarized. For these reasons, we recommend using the SF Assessor-Recorder’s online order form instead.

Whichever service you choose, please email us at [email protected] with the following information before sending us a marriage certificate:

• Your name, telephone number, and current physical location
• The name, address, telephone number, and email address of the person to whom we will ship the apostilled marriage certificate
• The destination country (e.g. France)
• The physical location of the marriage certificate or ordering status if you ordered one

Slowest: Order through the Mail

Option 1: Order the San Francisco County marriage certificate certified copy from the Assessor-Recorder

You can order a certified copy of a marriage certificate by mail from the San Francisco County Assessor-Recorder. In this case, you will need to sign the form before a local notary or an online notary and then mail the form and a check or money order to the issuing agency.

Please be sure to complete all fields in the application when applying by mail.

You can choose to have San Francisco County marriage certificate delivered to yourself and then mail it to us, or you can have the certificate shipped directly to us by adding our information in the Name of Person Receiving Copies, if Different From Above and Mailing Address for Copies, If Different From Above fields on the application.

SF Notary + Apostille
2511 Carlsbad Ave., Sacramento, CA 95821

Option 2: Order the marriage certificate from the State of California

You can also order a certified copy of a marriage certificate by mail from the California Department of Public Health – Vital Records. Note: the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) can only provide records of public marriages that occurred between 1905 to 1999 and 2008 to 2023. Certified copies of marriage certificates for any marriages that occurred from 2000 to 2007 or after 2023 must be obtained from the San Francisco County Recorder.

You will need to sign the form before a local notary or an online notary and then mail the form and a check or money order to the issuing agency.

Please be sure to complete all fields in the application when applying by mail. Also, be careful to order an AUTHORIZED COPY, not an INFORMATIONAL COPY.

You can choose to have CDPH marriage certificate delivered to yourself and then mail it to us, or you can have the certificate shipped directly to us by adding our information in the “Mailing Address” fields on the application.

C/O SF Notary + Apostille, 2511 Carlsbad Ave.
95821 Sacramento CA USA

Prior to ordering the marriage certificate from the County or State

Whichever mail-order option you select, please email us at [email protected] with the following information before sending us a marriage certificate:

• Your name, telephone number, and current physical location
• The name, address, telephone number, and email address of the person to whom we will ship the apostilled marriage certificate
• The destination country (e.g. France)
• The physical location of the marriage certificate or ordering status if you ordered one

Please note: government agencies can take several weeks to deliver your certified copy. If time is a concern, choose the in-person option instead.

The instructions on this page only apply to San Francisco County marriage certificates. If you need a marriage certificate from another county that is not San Francisco, please visit that county’s website for instructions. Each county uses different forms and employs different processes.

If you have any questions, please email [email protected] or call +1 (415) 655-9455.

Disclaimer: Information on this website is for informational purposes only. These instructions are based on our knowledge and experience and are meant to be helpful; however, they might contain errors. Please let us know if you encounter mistakes so that we can promptly correct them. SF Notary + Apostille is not a law firm, and its agents are not attorneys. Please contact a licensed attorney or your local bar association for counsel on legal matters.