2005 Rhode Island Code - § 23-3-15 — New certificates of birth following adoption – Legitimation and paternity determination.

    (a) The state registrar of vital records shall establish a new certificate of birth for a person born in this state when he or she receives the following:

   (1) An adoption report as provided in § 23-3-14 or a certified copy of the decree of adoption together with the information necessary to identify the original certificate of birth and to establish a new certificate of birth; except that a new certificate of birth shall not be established if the court decreeing the adoption, the adoptive parents, or the adopted person requests that a new certificate shall not be established.

   (2) A request that a new certificate be established and evidence required by regulation proving that the person has been legitimated, or that a court of competent jurisdiction has determined the paternity of the person; provided, however, that where a court of competent jurisdiction has determined the paternity of the person, the name of the person who has been adjudicated as being the father shall be inserted on the birth certificate.

   (b) When a new certificate of birth is established, the actual place and date of birth shall be shown. It shall be substituted for the original certificate of birth.

   (1) Thereafter, the original certificate and the evidence of adoption, paternity, or legitimation shall not be subject to inspection except upon order of a court of competent jurisdiction or as provided by regulation.

   (2) Upon receipt of a notice of annulment of adoption, the original certificate of birth shall be restored to its place in the files and the new certificate and evidence shall not be subject to inspection except upon order of a court of competent jurisdiction.

   (3) Upon receipt from a passive voluntary adoption mutual consent registry of a certificate provided for in § 15-7.2-12(b), the adult adoptee named in the certificate, and only that person, shall be entitled to receive non-certified copies of his or her original birth certificate.

   (c) If no certificate of birth is on file for the person for whom a new certificate is to be established under this section, a delayed certificate of birth shall be filed with the state registrar of vital records as provided in § 23-3-12 or 23-3-13, before a new certificate of birth is established, except that when the date and place of birth and parentage have been established in accordance with this chapter in the adoption proceedings, a delayed certificate shall not be required.

   (d) When a new certificate of birth is established by the state registrar of vital records, all copies of the original certificate of birth in the custody of any custodian of permanent local records in this state shall be sealed from inspection or forwarded to the state registrar of vital records, as he or she shall direct.

   (e) The state registrar shall, upon request, prepare and register a certificate in this state for a person born in a foreign country who is not a citizen of the United States and who was adopted through a court of competent jurisdiction in this state. The certificate shall be established upon receipt of a report of adoption from the court decreeing the adoption, proof of the date and place of the child's birth, and a request from the court, the adopting parents, or the adopted person if eighteen (18) years of age or over that a certificate be prepared. The certificate shall be labeled "certificate of foreign birth" and shall show the actual country of birth. After registration of the birth certificate in the new name of the adopted person, the state registrar shall seal and file the report of adoption which shall not be subject to inspection except upon order of a court of competent jurisdiction or as provided by regulation.

   (2) If the child was born in a foreign country but was a citizen of the United States at the time of birth, the state registrar shall not prepare a "certificate of foreign birth" and shall notify the adoptive parents of the procedures for obtaining a revised birth certificate for their child through the U.S. department of state.

   (f) When a new certificate of birth is established following an adoption or legitimation in this state, and when no record of the original birth is on file at the city or town of occurrence, the state registrar of vital records shall cause a copy to be filed with the registrar of births in the city or town where the child was born and the city or town of residence of the parents indicated on the new certificate, if that residence is within the state.