The City of Chicago is committed to providing equal employment opportunities without regard to any
protected status and a work environment that is free of unlawful harassment, discrimination, and
retaliation. As such, the City is committed to complying with all laws protecting employees’ religious beliefs
and practices. When requested, the City will provide an exemption from mandated vaccination for
employees’ religious beliefs and practices which prohibit the employee from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.
• To request an exemption from the City of Chicago’s Mandatory COVID-19 Vaccination Policy due to a sincerely
held religious belief conflicting with any of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines, you must complete this
request form.
• The completed request form must be provided to the Department of Human Resources (email address:
vaccineexemptions@cityofchicago.org) or your department’s Human Resources Liaison in order to allow the
City to evaluate your religious exemption request. This information will be used by the Department of Human
Resources to engage in an interactive process to determine eligibility.
• Consistent with State and Federal law, exemptions will only be granted for a sincerely held set of moral
convictions arising from belief in and relation to religious beliefs.
• Failure or refusal to provide a complete and sufficient request form and/or engage in an interactive process with
the Department of Human Resources, if necessary, may impact the City’s ability to adequately understand your
request or effectively engage in the interactive process which may result in a denial of your exemption request.
• All COVID-19 Vaccine Religious Exemption Requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, taking into
account whether the exemption would pose a direct threat to the health and/or safety of you, co-workers, or
members of the public during the course of your work duties or cause an undue hardship on the City’s
operations.
• Requests for exemption and any religious belief information provided will be kept confidential to the extent
possible and shared only with those City of Chicago employees who have a need to know.
• Any employee who is found to have engaged in misusing, abusing, and/or engaging in fraudulent activity in
requesting, certifying, or taking a religious exemption may be subject to discipline, up to & including termination.
• The City of Chicago requires that all employees receive the COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of employment.
However, a religious exemption from COVID-19 vaccination may be allowed due to an employee’s sincerely held
religious belief.
• Please review the employee’s completed attached certification.
• Please also read and complete Section III at the bottom of the attached certification.
• Be sure to sign the form and provide all requested contact information.
• You may return the completed form to the employee or send it directly to the vaccine exemptions inbox.