RI Department Of Health Office Closing For 3 Days

CRANSTON, RI — The Rhode Island Department of Health's Center for Vital Records will be closed until Friday, while the office relocates from the Cannon Building in Providence to Simpson Hall on the Pastore Campus in Cranston.

The closure will begin at 3:30 p.m., Tuesday, and the Cranston office will open at 8:30 a.m., Monday.

Any emergency vital records business requests that cannot be fulfilled by a city or town hall during the office closure can be directed to 401-602-7156 or doh.riversassistance@health.ri.gov.

Vital records, including birth, death and marriage records, can be requested at:

• Any city or town hall: birth certificates from after 1960, death certificates in 2022
• City/town hall where death occurred: death certificates before 2022
• City/town hall where ceremony happened: marriage certificates
• Online: health.ri.gov/records/about/copies
  
• By US mail: 6 Harrington Rd., Cranston 02920
• Drop box at Cranston or Providence office (Cranston drop box available May 2)
• By appointment (Call 401-222-2813).

The only thing that will change is that the office will have a new mailing address. All staff phone numbers and emails will stay the same.

State officials said the new office has ample free parking, is accessible by RIPTA bus route 21, and is located near other state agencies who provide critical services to the public (DMV, Office of the Attorney General).

There will be customer drop boxes in Cranston and, for three months after the move, in Providence. All of Vital Records’ forms will be updated with the new mailing address. An incorrect mailing address on a Vital Records form does not affect the validity or legality of the document.