Getting a birth certificate and state ID

If you are still in DCS custody, your caseworker is supposed to get these for you, and Arizona policy says that starts at 16, not 18. If you are out of custody, you order the birth certificate yourself on Arizona form VS-11 for $20, and the step that stops people is not the money, it is proving who you are without the ID you are trying to get.

If you are still in care

Federal law names six things the agency is supposed to hand you before you leave foster care at 18 or older, unless you were in care less than six months:

- an official or certified copy of your United States birth certificate
- a Social Security card
- health insurance information
- a copy of your medical records
- a driver's license or a state ID card that meets the REAL ID standard
- documentation proving you were previously in foster care

That list is in 42 U.S.C. 675(5)(I), 2024 edition. Read the qualifier inside it. The statute says you get these "(if the child is eligible to receive such document)." And this paragraph is a condition Arizona accepts in exchange for federal foster care money. It is not a right you can take to court. Ask anyway, ask in writing, and keep your copy of the ask.

Arizona starts earlier than the federal deadline. DCS Policy Chapter 5, Section 31, effective May 13, 2022, tells staff to "Provide or make arrangements for youth age 16 and older to receive a certified copy of their birth certificate, Social Security card, and state identification card (unless ineligible to receive) as outlined in Vital Records Request."

If you are 16 or 17 and still in care, that is the sentence to bring up. Start it now, not the month you turn 18.

How long DCS says it takes

DCS publishes its own average timing for the requests its staff submit, in DCS 02-43, Vital Records Requests:

- Arizona birth certificate: 2 weeks
- out-of-state birth certificate: 30 to 90 days
- out-of-country birth certificate: 180 days
- Social Security card: 30 to 60 days

The policy's own words: "Requests for vital records must be submitted in a timely manner because they may take up to 180 days to complete." The column is labeled an average, it assumes the paperwork is complete, and the table is footnoted that actual times vary. These are DCS numbers for the DCS channel. They are not the wait you should expect if you order a copy yourself.

Same policy, one more limit worth knowing. DCS may submit no more than one Arizona birth certificate request per child per year, and the state health department may deny extra ones. If a copy is already sitting in your case file from an earlier request, the policy tells the worker not to submit another. Ask what is already in the file before you ask for a new one.

Once you are out of custody

The DCS channel closes. The policy says it directly: "Children/youth must be in the State's legal custody in order to submit a request for new or additional copies of vital records." One of the listed reasons to reject a request is "the child who is the subject of a request is not in the legal custody of the Department."

The same policy still tells the DCS Vital Records Team to advise caseworkers on how to get a birth certificate or Social Security card for children who are not in the Department's custody. So it is worth asking. Do not build your plan around it.

Ordering it yourself

Form VS-11 from the Arizona Bureau of Vital Records, revised 03/18/2026. A certified copy is $20.

The identity step is the wall. The form wants a "Clear photocopy of the front and back of your valid, signed government photo ID OR have your signature notarized." The notary block on the form is labeled "Notary Area Applicable only if no government issued photo ID is available."

Read that twice, because it is the way out of the loop. If you have no photo ID, you do not need one. You sign in front of a notary instead.

There is also a checkbox on the form that gets misread a lot: "Self, I am at least 16 years of age and either have no residential address or I am in the Department of Child Safety's (DCS) custody. [Arizona Revised Statute 36-324(F)]"

A.R.S. 36-324(F) exists so a 16 or 17 year old does not need a parent, guardian, or foster parent to sign for them. That is all it does. It does not waive the $20. It does not waive the photo ID or the notary. And if you are already 18, it gives you nothing extra. You check "Self" the way any adult checks "Self," and the ID or notary step still applies to you.

The state ID

MVD form 40-5144, revision R03/26: "You must provide two documents that prove Arizona residency. The documents must be mail issued from a business, organization or government agency and must contain: Applicant name, Physical residential address."

Two pieces of mail. Your name on them. A physical residential address on them.

One line on that form helps more than it looks like it does: "All mailed MVD documents are acceptable as proof of residency." Anything MVD has already mailed you counts as one of the two.

What the form does not say

We read both pages of 40-5144. The residency section is a list of examples, things like a utility bill and a rental agreement. Nothing on that list is written for someone in a group home, a shelter, transitional housing, or a friend's spare room. There is no line for a caseworker letter and none for a signed statement from whoever you are staying with.

The list is labeled "Examples," and the form says MVD "reserves the right to review, consider and request additional information and documentation." So the list is not closed. What MVD actually takes from someone with no lease is not written down in anything we could find, and we are not going to guess at it on this page.

One thing we left out rather than get wrong: what MVD actually accepts from someone with no lease. When we can source it, it goes here.

What it costs

Twelve dollars. ADOT's fee page lists the non-Travel identification card at "Ages 0-64: $12." The Travel ID, the one with the star on it for airport security, is $25. You do not need the Travel ID to prove who you are.

Two groups pay nothing, and the second one matters here. The same page reads "Age 65 and older: no fee" and "Recipients of Supplemental Security Income: no fee." The statute behind it, A.R.S. 28-3165(J), writes the second one out as "A person who is a recipient of public monies as an individual with a disability under title XVI of the social security act, as amended." Title XVI is SSI. If you are on SSI, say so at the counter before you pay. It is a fee you do not owe.

There is a fifth exemption on that list, and what it does not do is worth knowing. It reads "A child who is in the custody of the department of child safety." A child, and in custody. If you have aged out you are neither. Anyone who tells you a foster care history makes the ID free is reading you a line that stopped applying on your eighteenth birthday. Unless you are on SSI, budget the twelve dollars.

If you are stuck on one of these steps, tell us which step. We are volunteers, not caseworkers, and we cannot make DCS answer a request. We can sit down and fill out the form with you.

Before you act on any of this

We checked this page on 21 August 2026. Fees change and forms get revised. The $20, the $12 and the form numbers above are what they were the day we checked them.

Every link here goes to the source we actually read, so you can open it and see what it
says today instead of what it said when we wrote this. If the source and this page
disagree, the source is right and we are wrong. Tell us and we will fix it.

If you would rather not chase it down on your own, call or text us at 602-888-0341
and we will look it up with you. That is not a referral to somewhere else. It is us,
on the phone, finding the current answer with you.