New Mexico Marriage and Divorce Records: County and Court Only (2026)

New Mexico's Department of Health does not handle marriage or divorce records at all, and says so on its own vital records page. Marriage licenses come from the county clerk who issued them, and divorce decrees come from the district court that entered the order.

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

This page is part of our state-by-state guide to marriage and divorce records. New Mexico is one of the simplest states to describe and one of the easiest to waste time in, because the office most people contact first has no role at all.

The State Health Department Holds Neither Record

New Mexico's Vital Records and Health Statistics program is explicit. Its page states that "Copies of marriage licenses are available from the county clerk of the county where the marriage license was issued," and that "Copies of divorce decrees are available from the district court where the court order was filed."

That is the whole state-level picture. There is no New Mexico marriage certificate issued by the health department, no divorce certificate, and no verification letter. The department does not hold an index of either event and cannot search for one on your behalf.

This places New Mexico alongside Ohio and North Dakota as a fully county-and-court state for these two record types. It differs from states like Texas or Colorado, where the state office cannot issue a certified copy but can still produce a verification, and from states like North Carolina or Nebraska, where a genuine state certificate exists in parallel with the county record.

Marriage Records Come From the County Clerk

The county clerk that issued the marriage license is the custodian of the record it created. State law puts it there: NMSA 40-1-15 requires the person who solemnized the marriage to certify it to the county clerk within ninety days, and directs the clerk to "cause it to be properly recorded and indexed in a permanent record as a part of the county records." Requests go to that specific office, in one of New Mexico's 33 counties, and each office sets its own identification requirements and turnaround.

Fee schedules are local, but they are not unbounded. NMSA 14-8-14 says records maintained in the office of the county clerk "are available to be searched without charge during regular business hours." It also bars clerks from charging "fees in excess of one dollar ($1.00) per page for documents eleven inches by seventeen inches in size or smaller," and bars any fee "for the cost of determining whether any public record is subject to disclosure." Within those limits a clerk may charge reasonable fees for conducting a search on your behalf, for copies, and for certifying a document, and may require payment in advance. If an office quotes more than a dollar a page for an ordinary letter-size copy, or charges you to look at the index yourself, ask what fee schedule that comes from.

Because the record is a recorded county document rather than a restricted state vital record, county clerks generally handle these through their regular recording and public records channels rather than through a relationship-based eligibility screen. NMSA 14-8-9.1 states the rule directly: except as that section provides, "all documents filed and recorded in the office of the county clerk are public records," subject to disclosure under the Inspection of Public Records Act. Santa Fe County, for instance, describes access to recorded records through its public records process.

That county page also points to a route worth knowing about, because it lets you check whether a record exists before spending anything. Santa Fe County directs the public to its ClerkTrackWeb recorded-documents search and publishes the shared credentials for it: log in with the user name PUBLIC and the password PUBLIC. The search returns index entries for recorded documents, which is enough to confirm a record and capture the details needed to order a certified copy. It is an index, not a certified copy, and it covers Santa Fe County only. Other counties run their own systems or none at all, so treat this as an example of what to look for rather than a statewide tool.

One county-level detail is worth checking before you order. The Santa Fe County Clerk's office states that "We only certify the marriage application (not the license itself)." Practices like that vary from county to county, and the distinction can matter if the document is going to an agency with a specific requirement, such as an immigration filing or a foreign government that also wants an apostille. Ask the clerk exactly what document will be certified and what it will say.

New Mexico does not allow common-law marriages to be formed in the state and recognizes only those validly contracted elsewhere, so a couple who never obtained a license in New Mexico will have no county record to request; our page on New Mexico common-law marriage explains that distinction.

Divorce Records Come From the District Court

New Mexico divorces are handled in the district courts, and the decree lives in the court file. There is no second, simpler vital record to fall back on, so the court is the only source.

To request a copy you generally need the case number, or enough identifying information to let the clerk find the case: both parties' names, the county, and the approximate year. Certified copies carry a certification charge on top of per-page copying.

The New Mexico Judiciary treats court records requests under the state's Inspection of Public Records Act. Courts accept requests through an online web form at ipra.nmcourts.gov, or by written request mailed to the individual court's records custodian, and require the requester's name, address, and telephone number along with an identification of the records sought "with reasonable particularity." Copy fees are modest: as of August 2026, the Third Judicial District publishes a rate of $0.35 per page for a physical copy, plus mailing and media charges where applicable.

Two limits are worth stating. Not every document in a domestic relations file is available to anyone who asks; sealed material and records protected by court rule are excluded, and the clerk applies those rules on a case-by-case basis. And the availability of a case file says nothing about whether the underlying marriage is recorded anywhere else, which is why the county clerk and the district court remain separate errands.

For the substantive law rather than the records process, see New Mexico divorce laws. For the broader framework governing records requests in the state, see New Mexico public records laws.

Searching for a New Mexico Record When You Do Not Know the County

The absence of a state office means there is no central place to run a name search, and no state search-for-a-fee service of the kind Nevada and Texas offer. If the county is unknown, the practical approaches are to narrow it by where the couple lived at the time, to check the county clerk offices in the likely counties directly, and for divorce, to check the Judiciary's public case lookup tools before filing a records request.

Before turning to a commercial people-search product, understand that these services handle marriage and divorce data unreliably, because the underlying records are scattered across thousands of independent county and court systems nationally. And any consumer report used to screen someone for a job, an apartment, or credit falls under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act, with permissible-purpose and notice rules that a personal-curiosity search does not meet. Our guide to finding out if someone is married or divorced covers the lawful routes.

For your own certified copy, our walkthrough on getting a copy of your marriage certificate covers the identification and mail-order mechanics that apply everywhere. For the record type New Mexico's health department does issue, see New Mexico death records.

Disclaimer

This article provides general information about how New Mexico marriage and divorce records are held and released. It is not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. County clerks and district courts set their own fees and procedures and change them without notice; confirm current details with the specific office. For advice about a specific situation, consult an attorney licensed in New Mexico.

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Last updated: 2026-08-04. Fees and procedures reflect the sources cited as of that date.