The Nowy Sącz Branch of the State Archive in Cracow came into being on the basis of the regulation issued by the Minister of Education on 1 July 1950 and officially opened on 1 December 1950, first as a branch of the Provincial State Archive in Cracow and then, on the basis of a decree from 29 March 1951 as the County State Archive. Since 1958 it was again a Branch of the State Archive of the City and Province of Cracow. At the beginning the area of the archive's operation covered the counties of Nowy Sącz, Limanowa, Nowy Targ and Gorlice and, since 1955, after the creation in 1952 of the County State Archive in Nowy Targ, the counties of Nowy Sącz and Limanowa. After the state administration reform of 1975, the Provincial State Archive in Nowy Sącz based in Nowy Targ was created in 1976, covering the counties of Nowy Sącz, Gorlice and the eastern part of the county of Limanowa. After the implementation of the Act of 14 July 1983 about the national archival collection and archives, the outpost in Nowy Sącz again became a branch of the State Archive in Cracow.