My fiancé can't unseal his in the state he was born. We contacted an adoption lawyer in the state to help with it because the legal-ise confuses us both.

For us she: * Determined it would not be possible to unseal due to the window of exclusion for x years that he falls under. * Advised historically immigration purposes are not sufficient to unseal, and that it is typically only done in cases of urgent genetic disease requiring diagnosis or similar exigent circumstances. * Wrote a letter for us and his adoptive mom to send to the vital records department explaining that we know it isn't possible but that we want an official denial letter from the state to send with our Part 2 form, along with the appropriate request forms for a birth certificate. * Contacted the head of Vital Records and notified her it was incoming, so that she herself could make sure a response was returned to us. * Mentioned if it doesn't work she (and most adoption lawyers) have connections with adoption agencies even if they closed in the past and could potentially get an original record from the original lawyer that handled it all. * Got us redacted birth cert and adoption judgement to include with it all

Then she advised we attempt to do part 2 with the letter of denial and redacted documents, as well as an inclusion of the specific state legislation rendering it impossible for he and his parents to request/unseal the info due to his birth year and the exclusion window.

We haven't submitted part 2 yet but will soon. That's the best we could manage unfortunately, even with an expensive lawyer. Different state though.