Obtaining Your Florida Marriage License During Covid 19

Obtaining Your Florida Marriage License During Covid 19

There is no doubt that the onset of Covid 19 has changed the way things get done. This is especially true for the thousands of you that have tried will try to get married during the pandemic. When the pandemic first intensified in March almost all of the 67 Florida Clerk of the Courts offices shut down leaving couples who were still planning on getting married during this time out of luck. For others, ceremonies and receptions were canceled or rescheduled to a later date. In any instance, this has not been a good time for engaged couples.

The current state of obtaining a marriage license

Today, many of the clerk’s offices have re-opened however; in many instances, the offices are operating with limited staffing, are not allowing walking in customers, and there are some offices that are not accepting applications from out of state or foreign couples. Some of the clerks are operating online by appointment only. What numerous couples quickly learn is that it can take up to 8 weeks to get an appointment to obtain a marriage license. Furthermore, another reality has also developed during the pandemic that being, that since so many of the Clerk’s employees are working from home, and the phone at the clerk’s office will ring with no one to answer the call.

The frustration grows

One thing is for sure, even the number of virus cases continues to increase, and many couples are still moving forward with their wedding plans assuming that everything will be back to normal by the time of the wedding – this sadly is not the case. One of the greatest pieces of advice I can offer, is to contact the clerk’s office that you intend on obtaining the marriage license from to see what the time frame is for purchasing the license. You like other may very well find that you have to apply for the marriage license weeks before the ceremony. This is highly problematic for those couples that are coming in from out-of-state or from another country because for most of the 67 clerk’s offices, state law mandates that the couple appear in person. With this said, the question becomes, “If it is impossible to appear in person, is there another way to obtain the marriage license?” ….The answer is YES!

Obtaining your Florida Marriage License by Mail…

Although state law mandates that the couple appear in person to obtain the marriage license, there are 7 of the 67 clerk’s offices that offer marriage license by mail services. The first question that I am always asked is whether or not obtaining the license in this fashion is legal…the answer is yes. These clerk’s offices found a provision in the law that identified that the requirement to have the couple appear in person is unconstitutional. The reason being, is that couples where one or both of the couple are disabled, military serving overseas, couples who do not have time prior to coming to Florida before the wedding, couples who work during the hours that the clerk’s office is open, people who do not drive, and maybe the largest segment of our clients – those who are incarcerated simply cannot appear in person. For these reasons, the 7 clerk’s offices have authorized people and companies like us WWW.FloridaCountyClerk.com that are “Marriage License Coordinators” that offer services whereas the couple can obtain the marriage license by mail meaning, that the process begins online using an easy payment gateway, registration for the license is also web-based, the official forms are emailed to the couples where they then have their signatures notarized in the area where they live, and then expressed mailed to the clerk who in turn issues the license and the license is then sent to the couple. WWW.FloridaCountyClerk.com offers a number of process services based on quick you need the license (from 60 days out from the ceremony to within 2 weeks until your big day. The prices for these services range from $199.00 to $325.00. The price you will pay includes all costs and to is easy to obtain the license. In addition, you and your fiancé do not have to live in the same geographical location because our clerk knows that people like active duty military or the incarcerated are not living in the same location.

During the Pandemic alone, our office has successfully delivered over 300 marriage licenses for people living in the United States and abroad.

For more information please email us at: [email protected], call (954) 822-0359, text us at the same  number, or chat with us online at:  https://secure.livechatinc.com/licence/8591571/v2/open_chat.cgi?groups=0