BELIZE CITY, Mon. Aug. 17, 2020– Most of Belize’s governance services have traditionally been conducted face-to-face and have required persons to travel to the capital, Belmopan, to get the services done. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, our government has been forced into an online space for the provision of key services, which now include marriage licensing.
The office of the Attorney General, on Friday, August 14, issued a press release which states that, “For the purposes of preventing, controlling, containing and suppressing the spread of the infectious disease COVID-19, the Attorney General’s Ministry hereby informs the public of the following changes in respect of the following services: Marriage Registry – Belmopan Office. The provision of all face-to-face services to the public from the Marriage Registry, Belmopan, is hereby suspended effective immediately.”
Persons are invited to visit www.belize.gov.bz to access the forms needed, such as consent to marry (if applicable), the license application and the checklist of documents needed to complete the process.
The application must be signed by applicants, and copies of national ID notarized by a Justice of the Peace must be attached to it.
The items must then be scanned and sent to the ministry via email to [email protected]. Applicants can then expect a two-week wait for the processing of the application, and are reminded that the application fee should not be paid until they have received an email indicating that their application has been vetted and provisionally approved.
The application fee — BZD $50 for Belizean applicants, and BZD $200 for non-Belizeans; is to be paid to the government treasury.
Despite the online nature of the application process, applicants are expected to pick up their approved licenses in person and to present an ID, original documents and a receipt for the payment of fees.
For more information, the public is advised to call Ms. Desiree Montes, secretary for the marriage registry, at telephone number 822-2504.