Marriage goes electronic

The Thomas’ of San Juan were the first to receive the new electronic marriage certificate which they got hours after their nuptials at a special ceremony at the Ministry of Legal Affairs where Legal Affairs Minister Prakash Ramadhar, Registrar General Karen Bridgewater and the department’s assistant registrar were in attendance.

Ramadhar said the issuance of the first electronic marriage certificate represented a quantum leap in terms of technology for the ministry. According to Ramadhar, the Legal Affairs Ministry was using cutting edge technology as it seeks to become a “paperless” ministry.

Birth and death certificates are already available to the public in the electronic format and soon, the minister disclosed, legislation will be taken to Parliament to allow for the payment of documents from the Legal Affairs Ministry online via credit cards.

The electronic marriage certificate costs $25 and eliminates the five-day wait for newlyweds.

According to Bridgewater, previously marriage certificates would be handwritten, now, since the “writers” employed by the department have been retrained as data entry clerks, the wait for the document will only be five minutes.

Anyone, regardless of when they were married, can apply for the electronic marriage certificate, the RG said. She said it was the department’s intention to make these vital documents “easily accessible to citizens of TT,” while, according to Ramadhar, it will also eliminate citizens from having to travel to Port-of-Spain to do business. He also disclosed that only recently legislation made it possible for persons to have their first names on birth certificates and already some 700 persons have been processed by the RG’s Department.

Another change expected to be undertaken by the RG’s department is reducing the size of the electronic birth, death and marriage certificates, while enhancing the security features on the documents.

The newlywed couple had little to say and they were still somewhat awestruck that their simple wedding ceremony became national news. They were however excited for their future together.