This page is a notary scorecard. It is not a mailbox directory. Form 1583 is the Postal Service form you sign so a mailbox store can receive your mail. It appears here because mailbox signup is a common reason a Rhode Island owner needs a notary. The form is the use-case. The mailbox store is someone else’s product.
Legal
This page is not legal advice. An in-state commission is a notary license from Rhode Island. A Rhode Island-commissioned notary may perform remote online notarization, which is an electronic session, after notice to the commissioning agency under R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-30.1-12.1. That section took effect June 30, 2022. The notary must be located in Rhode Island. The signer may be elsewhere, including outside the United States if the record meets the statute. The Department of State says you must receive a confirmation email before the first remote act. § 42-30.1-20.1 caps the fee at $25 per document or notarization, in the room or on video. § 42-30.1-15 prints a four-year commission and an $80 application fee. The audio-visual recording is kept at least ten years. The live provider table names NotaryLive, OneNotary, and Blue Notary for remote work. It does not name Proof. An in-room electronic notarization is a different product: the signer is still in the room. A regular Rhode Island notary who never received that email still has to be in the room. A bank, a commercial mailbox (CMRA), or the Postal Service still decides whether this packet may be remote.
Not legal advice.
The Rhode Island grade that is not a company letter
We grade the state rule first. Remote online notarization (RON) is a video session with a notary. A company cannot turn a regular Rhode Island commission into a confirmation email. It also cannot put Proof on a provider table that does not name Proof. Neighboring Massachusetts has not opened its remote signup. Neighboring Connecticut’s in-state video path is a signed original that is mailed. Rhode Island’s remote page describes a digital session, and one sentence in the standards still says to mail the signed copy. We print both.
Rhode Island (the state rule)
State rule · October 2026- In-state RON
- A
- Signer RON access
- A
- Walk-in / mobile backup
- B
Primary sources: R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-30.1-12.1; § 42-30.1-20.1; § 42-30.1-15; Department of State, electronic and remote comparison; how to become an electronic or remote notary; Standards of Conduct, effective September 22, 2022. Country context: NASS and NNA. Secondary vendor map: Proof, July 8, 2026, not the country authority.
A confirmation email, a $25 cap, and two different digital jobs
Mixing the labels into one “is video legal in Rhode Island?” checkout is how a Providence owner pays a company price and still has a notary who never got the email. Rhode Island video work is legal. It is not automatic on the day the ordinary commission arrives.
- Remote online notarization is a notarial act for a remotely located individual, by communication technology. Communication technology means a live connection by sight and sound. § 42-30.1-12.1. The notary is located in Rhode Island. You are not in the same room. The remote comparison says the notary must be in Rhode Island and the signer may be anywhere in the world.
- An in-room electronic act is a different permission on the same signup. The remote comparison says the signer must be physically in the notary’s presence. The notary still uses an approved provider, and the Department of State still has to confirm the authority before the first electronic act. A video checkout is not that in-room product.
The start date is the statute, not a blog. The compiler history for § 42-30.1-12.1 lists P.L. 2022, ch. 438 and ch. 439, both effective June 30, 2022. We read chapter 439. Its last section says the act takes effect upon passage. The enrolled heading says enacted June 30, 2022. The Standards of Conduct were amended and restated effective September 22, 2022. That later date is the standards. It is not a second start date for the statute.
The ordinary commission comes first. § 42-30.1-15: the applicant is at least 18, a United States citizen or permanent legal resident, a resident of Rhode Island or a person with a place of employment or practice in Rhode Island, able to read and write English, not disqualified under § 42-30.1-16, and able to show sufficient knowledge of the office. The apply page says attorneys and CPAs in good standing are exempt from the residency line. The statute says the same for a member of the Rhode Island bar and for a certified public accountant under § 5-3.1-5. Before the commission is issued, the applicant takes an oath and sends it to the commissioning agency. The apply page says you appear before a Rhode Island notary for that oath. On compliance, the commissioning officer issues a commission for four years. The definitions in chapter 439 name the commissioning officer as the governor and the commissioning agency as the Rhode Island office of the secretary of state. The apply page is the Department of State desk that takes the form.
The $80 is the application fee, not the price of your session. § 42-30.1-15 says the applicant pays eighty dollars. The apply page says the non-refundable fee is $80, by check or money order to the RI Department of State. The office says it processes a completed application in 3 to 5 business days and mails the commission certificate. It does not accept the application by email. The same section says some officeholders, including a state senator or representative, do not pay that application fee. That list is not a consumer checkout. § 42-30.1-15 and the apply page do not print a bond amount. We will not invent one. If the commission is not renewed, § 42-30.1-15(g) lets the notary keep working for 30 days after the expiration date.
The knowledge check is for the commission, not a second remote exam. The apply page tells you to review the notary manual, chapter 42-30.1, and the standards, and to take the Notary Knowledge Assessment and score at least 80 percent. It also points to free notary training. The page does not print a dollar price for that assessment. The remote signup page says you complete any training the solution provider gives. It does not print a state remote exam or a pass score for that provider training.
The remote gate sits on top of the commission. § 42-30.1-12.1(f): before the first remote act, the notary notifies the commissioning agency and identifies the technologies. If the agency has set standards for the technology or the identity proofing, the notary’s tools must meet them. The remote signup page is more specific than the word “notify.” You must already hold a current Rhode Island commission. You buy an approved provider. You cannot use FaceTime, Zoom, or WebEx. The subscription has to include an electronic signature and an “electronic notary stamp.” The state does not require a digital certificate. A provider may. You mail or bring the Notary Public Information Update form, with a sample of the electronic signature and the “electronic notary stamp,” to RI Department of State, Business Services Division/Notary, 148 West River Street, Providence, RI 02904. There is no fee to file that form. You wait for an email that confirms the authority. You do not start until that email arrives.
The $25 cap is the same number for a room act and a video act. § 42-30.1-20.1(a) says a notary may charge not more than $25 per document or notarization, and must disclose the fee first. Subsection (b) repeats that $25 ceiling for a remote act under § 42-30.1-12.1. The remote comparison says the notary may charge a maximum of $25 per notarial act. New Hampshire’s statute prints $10 for an ordinary act and $25 for a remote act, and its fee blurb does not match. Rhode Island’s two subsections print the same $25. Company starting prices on the directory, about $25 a session, are company stickers. They are not a second Rhode Island fee schedule.
The identity check is not a courtesy. For a remote signer, § 42-30.1-12.1 wants personal knowledge, a credible witness, or at least two different types of identity proofing. The remote comparison describes a different pair: an acceptable form of identification and knowledge-based authentication through the approved provider. We print both. We will not invent a quiz length or a pass rate the Department of State has not printed. The 80 percent figure is the commission assessment on the apply page. It is not a signer quiz. If the check cannot be finished, a mobile notary or a walk-in is the product that can finish.
If you are outside the United States, § 42-30.1-12.1(b)(4) adds a purpose test. The record has to be filed with, or relate to, a United States court, public official, government, or other covered entity, or it has to involve property in the United States or a transaction substantially connected with the United States. The act of signing also must not be prohibited in the foreign state where you are. The remote comparison’s “anywhere in the world” line and that foreign-state test are both on official pages. We will not drop the test.
“Appear personally” in Rhode Island already includes a live video call. § 42-30.1-5, as amended effective June 30, 2022: personal appearance means communication technology at the time of the notarization, or being physically close enough to communicate. That definition does not skip the confirmation email, the approved provider, or the rest of § 42-30.1-12.1.
The recording is part of the act. § 42-30.1-12.1(e): keep the audio-visual recording, or have a repository keep it, for at least 10 years after it is made, unless a rule sets a different period. The standards, section 8, print the same 10-year floor. The certificate has to say the act used communication technology. The short form the statute accepts includes the sentence “This notarial act involved the use of communication technology.”
A journal is not the same thing as that recording. The apply page says a journal is not required by law and is strongly suggested. The standards say keeping a journal is recommended and not required. If you do keep one, section 7 says to retain it for seven years after the commission expires, is resigned, or is revoked. The remote comparison says the notarial act is automatically recorded in the notary’s digital journal. Those are three different sentences. The 10-year number is the recording. The 7-year number is a journal you chose to keep, counted from the end of the commission. We will not merge them into one clock.
One standards sentence still says to mail the signed copy
The Department of State’s remote comparison says both the signer and the notary affix their signatures digitally, and that a “digital stamp and seal” comes from the approved provider. Section 8(d) of the September 22, 2022 standards says something else. Once signed, the requesting person shall mail the signed copy of the documents to the notary for certification and execution with the notary’s signature and the “official stamp.” Section 8(e) says the official date and time are the date and time the notary watched the signature on the audio-video connection.
We do not treat the mail sentence as a repealed line, and we do not treat the digital page as if the standards had deleted it. Both documents are current official text we retrieved. A receiving desk can prefer one of them. Ask that desk before you pay. Connecticut’s whole in-state video product is the mailed original. Rhode Island’s statute and remote signup describe an electronic session, and the standards still contain the mail sentence. That is the conflict. It is not a Connecticut rule pasted onto Providence.
The standards also say a Rhode Island notary is not required to perform a remote act, an act on an electronic record, or an act with a technology the notary did not choose. A notary may say no. That is when a mobile notary or a walk-in is the backup.
We did not read a will ban or a real-estate closing ban in § 42-30.1-12.1. Connecticut’s remote-acknowledgment statute keeps wills, powers of attorney, and real-estate closings off that path. Massachusetts keeps wills and codicils off communication technology. Rhode Island’s remote section, as we read it, does not print those bans. That is not permission to ignore the desk that will receive your document. If the desk wants you in the room, do not buy a video session to argue with them.
The provider table is a list, and Proof is not on it
The live signup page we retrieved in October 2026 is a table with two approval columns: electronic notarization, and remote online notarization. NotaryLive, OneNotary, and BlueNotary (the table prints “Blue Notary”) are marked yes for remote online notarization. Proof is not a name on that table. A Rhode Island notary cannot treat a missing name as approval. A person in Rhode Island can still use an out-of-state notary, including a Proof notary commissioned in a video state, if the receiving desk accepts that act. That out-of-state session is § 42-30.1-10. It is not a Rhode Island confirmation email.
The table is not one yes for every row. Corporation Service Company and EscrowTab are marked yes for electronic notarization and no for remote online notarization. Other rows are the reverse. Pavaso and Stavvy say on that page that the remote tool is offered only as part of a larger real-estate platform. That is not the same product as a consumer video checkout. The Blue Notary row says you will need to provide your own “electronic stamp” and signature. We will not reprint every row. Read the row before you pay a subscription. An August 2023 vendor PDF is an older electronic list. It is not the live table.
What actually needs a notary on a Rhode Island LLC / bank stack
A Rhode Island LLC is formed by filing articles of organization with the Department of State. R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-16-6 lists what those articles must include, including the name of the person authorized to sign them. Form 400 says the authorized person signs under penalty of perjury. The form and the start-a-business table print a $150 filing fee. We did not read a notarization requirement on § 7-16-6 or on Form 400. People still show up asking for a notary because a bank, a processor, a landlord, or a mailbox asked for a sworn statement on a different document that sits next to the LLC.
| Document | Typical notary question | Video vs in the room |
|---|---|---|
| RI LLC articles of organization (§ 7-16-6, Form 400) | Usually none for the Department of State filing itself. The statute lists the contents. Form 400 is a signature under penalty of perjury. The filing fee on the form is $150. We did not read a notarization requirement on those pages. | Do not buy a video session because a blog said “LLCs need a notary.” Confirm the live form. |
| Bank signup documents (resolutions, signature cards, sworn statements) | The bank’s current checklist. Some desks accept a video notary. Some want you in the room with a Rhode Island commission. | Ask the desk before you pay $25. A Rhode Island notary can do the video session only after the confirmation email. We will not invent a bank’s rule. |
| Operating agreement or power of attorney the bank requested | The act the form asks for. | An in-state remote notary can fit if that notary has the email and the desk accepts a remote act. An out-of-state video notary can fit on the same condition. If the form says you must be in the room, that is a mobile notary or a walk-in. |
| PS Form 1583 (mailbox signup) | Yes, a notary public licensed in a U.S. state, territory, possession, or DC, or the mailbox store employee in person. June 2024 form. | The form’s own note allows a live video call. A Rhode Island signer can use an in-state remote notary who has the confirmation email, or an out-of-state video notary, if the store accepts that session. See the 1583 page. |
| Vehicle title or real-estate closing | The motor-vehicle desk, the title company, the lender, or the closing desk decides. We did not read a closing ban in § 42-30.1-12.1. | We have not read a current statewide video policy for those desks. If the desk wants you in the room, do not buy a video session to argue with them. |
| Will or codicil | We did not read a will ban in § 42-30.1-12.1. That is not the same as a desk that will accept a video will. | If we cannot quote a current official page that the receiving desk will take a remote will today, we will not invent it. When the desk wants you in the room, that is a mobile notary or a walk-in. |
We do not publish a bank-by-bank or town-by-town “accepts video” list we have not read on that desk’s page this month. If you need the operating address so a bank will open the account, that is a different product. It is not this site’s directory.
Open all night versus booked, in this state
A same-session electronic video act can be a Rhode Island remote notary who already has the confirmation email, or an out-of-state video notary, if the receiving desk will take that act. Company availability letters live on the directory, once. The Rhode Island fee cap does not keep a counter open after it closes.
If the desk wants you and a Rhode Island notary in the same room, the identity check fails, or the notary never got the email, you are shopping store hours or a booked house call. That is the B on walk-in / mobile. It is not a failure of the 2022 statute. It is the live backup. Massachusetts has not opened in-state video, so a same-day Massachusetts commission is a room job. Connecticut’s in-state video path adds a mailing step.
The $25 in § 42-30.1-20.1 is the Rhode Island cap we can quote. It is not a promise that a video company’s checkout stops at $25 when the company adds a witness or another signer, and it is not a UPS price. The consumer starting prices we cite on company cards, about $25 a session, are still the official pages retrieved August 2026. Counters set their own prices at or below the statute cap.
Company letters live on the directory
Availability, identity check, and session-record letters for Proof/Notarize, NotaryLive, OneNotary, BlueNotary, mobile, and walk-in are on the directory, once. This page keeps the Rhode Island rule and the document table. Official starting prices we cite: NotaryLive about $25 per session; Proof/Notarize about $25 for the first seal and $15 for each extra seal; OneNotary online about $25 and mobile from about $80. We do not invent a session price for BlueNotary. Independent Rhode Island mobiles are not that OneNotary sticker. Counters set their own prices.
Form 1583 as a Rhode Island use-case, without becoming a mailbox review
USPS will not let a commercial mailbox (CMRA) hand you mail until PS Form 1583 (June 2024) is complete. Form 1583 is the Postal Service form you sign so that store can receive your mail. You sign in person with the store (or an authorized employee) or with a notary public. The form’s note allows a live video call. A Rhode Island signer can use a Rhode Island remote notary who has the confirmation email, or an out-of-state remote notary, if the store accepts that session. That is not the Massachusetts story, where a Massachusetts-commissioned notary cannot do the video session tonight. It is not the Connecticut story, where the in-state video path is a mailed original. Nearby pages: Connecticut and Massachusetts.
What we will not do here: grade mailbox brands, pick a Providence or Warwick storefront, or explain store flags. Those are mailbox questions. The notary question is: did the session match the form (U.S.-licensed notary, two IDs, home address matching the address ID), and will the store accept that session? Details live on Form 1583 notarization.
A sequence that usually wastes less money
- Read the receiving desk’s current instruction. If they need you in the room, or they need a Rhode Island notary in the room, do not buy a video session to argue with them.
- If they accept a remote act, a Rhode Island notary can do it only after the confirmation email, and only with an approved provider. You may also use a notary licensed in another video state. The Department of State is the authority for the in-state email. NASS and NNA are the country sources. The company’s live notary pool is the day-of fact. Proof is not on the Rhode Island provider table. NotaryLive is.
- Budget the extras from the official page, extra seal, extra signer, witness, before you upload a six-signature packet at the $25 sticker. The $25 in § 42-30.1-20.1 is the Rhode Island cap per document or notarization. It is not that company’s extra-signer line.
- If the identity check fails, stop treating “try again after midnight” as a plan. Switch to a mobile notary or a walk-in. NotaryLive’s FAQ describes a Personal Verifier path. That is their product, not a universal escape hatch.
- Keep the session confirmation. The value of a Rhode Island remote session in a later dispute is the recording § 42-30.1-12.1 says to keep for at least 10 years. The value of an out-of-state remote session is the recording that notary’s state already requires. The value of a walk-in is the in-room act the desk already said it wanted. Do not count the optional journal’s seven years as if it were the recording.
Sources
- R.I. Gen. Laws § 42-30.1-12.1 (P.L. 2022, ch. 438 and ch. 439, effective June 30, 2022): a notary located in this state may use communication technology for a remotely located individual; identity by personal knowledge, a credible witness, or at least two types of identity proofing; audio-visual recording kept at least 10 years; extra limits when the signer is outside the United States; notify the commissioning agency and name the technologies before the first remote act. Session law we read: P.L. 2022, ch. 439.
- § 42-30.1-5: personal appearance includes communication technology or being close enough to communicate. History line: amended effective June 30, 2022.
- § 42-30.1-10: a notarial act performed in another state has the same effect in Rhode Island when a notary of that state, or another listed officer, performs it.
- § 42-30.1-15: $80 application fee; four-year commission issued by the commissioning officer; oath before issuance; 30 days to keep working after an unrenewed commission expires. The section does not print a bond amount.
- § 42-30.1-20.1: fee not to exceed $25 per document or notarization, disclosed first, for an ordinary act and again for a remote act.
- § 42-30.1-13, titled “Official stamp”: it includes the notary’s name, the words “notary public,” the jurisdiction, and other information the commissioning agency’s rules require.
- Rhode Island Department of State, Electronic and Remote Online Notarization: electronic notarization keeps the signer in the room; remote online notarization keeps the notary in Rhode Island and lets the signer be anywhere in the world; approved provider required; maximum $25 per notarial act; digital signatures.
- Rhode Island Department of State, Become an Electronic or Remote Online Notary: current commission first; no FaceTime, Zoom, or WebEx; no fee to file the update form; wait for the confirmation email; live table marks NotaryLive, OneNotary, and Blue Notary yes for remote online notarization. Proof is not on the table. Retrieved October 2026.
- Rhode Island Department of State, Apply for a New Commission: four-year commission; $80 non-refundable fee; knowledge assessment at least 80 percent; free training offered; journal not required by law; oath before a Rhode Island notary; applications are not accepted by email.
- Standards of Conduct for Notaries Public (effective September 22, 2022): section 8 is the remote section, including the mail-the-signed-copy sentence and the 10-year recording; a journal is recommended and not required; section 7 says keep an elected journal seven years after the commission ends.
- R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-16-6 and Form 400: articles of organization; authorized person signs under penalty of perjury; $150 filing fee on the form and on the start-a-business table. We did not read a notarization requirement.
- NASS, Remote Electronic Notarization: country-level enacted-law count. A law on the books is not the same as that state’s own notaries being allowed to use it today. Rhode Island’s own notaries can use the remote path after the confirmation email.
- NNA, What is a Remote Online Notary?: country context. Rhode Island is not in the NNA holdout notes we use for Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Alabama, Connecticut, California, or Massachusetts.
- Proof RON map (July 8, 2026), labeled secondary vendor map. Proof is also a listed vendor on this site. Proof is not a name on the Rhode Island provider table we retrieved.
- Notarize consumer pricing: $25 / $15 / $15 / $10.
- NotaryLive pricing: $25/session; extras; 10-year storage. NotaryLive is marked yes for Rhode Island remote online notarization on the Department of State table.
- OneNotary individuals pricing: $25 online; mobile from $80. OneNotary is marked yes for Rhode Island remote online notarization. No tracking link.
- BlueNotary: public homepage. The Department of State table prints “Blue Notary” as yes for remote online notarization and says you provide your own “electronic stamp” and signature. We do not invent a session price.
- PS Form 1583, June 2024.