How many certified copies should I order?
At least three. Ordering extras in the same request is nearly always cheaper than ordering them one at a time later.
Three is the practical minimum and five is more comfortable. Social Security, your state license agency and the passport agency each want to see a certified copy, and having only one turns the whole sequence into a queue — every step waiting for the previous agency to send the document back.
The passport is the one that catches people out. A passport application is mailed in with your document, and it stays with the application until the new book comes back — which is weeks, not days. If that copy was your only one, everything else stops until it returns.
Why extras are cheaper up front
Most offices charge a search fee on the first copy and a smaller amount for each additional copy in the same request. Ordering three at once is normally well under the price of ordering one three times, and it saves you two more rounds of mail.
Fees differ by state and by office, so we publish one only where we have read it off that office’s own page. Where we have not, your state’s page says so rather than printing a plausible number.
If you are ordering while you wait, this is the cheapest decision in the whole process to get right. A second request later costs more and adds weeks.
Other questions people ask
When you’re ready to do it
Two questions about your situation first, because there is one answer that means we can’t help — and we would rather tell you that before you pay than after.
One payment. No subscription.