Libro Primero · Título II · Capítulo I Párrafo III. Celebración del matrimonio

Marriage must be authorized by the municipal mayor or the council member acting in his stead, or by a notary legally qualified to practice his profession.

It may also be authorized by a minister of any religion having such power, granted by the corresponding administrative authority.

Civilly capable persons who intend to contract marriage shall so state before the competent public official of the residence of either of the contracting parties, who shall receive under oath from each of them, legally identified, a declaration on the following points, which he shall cause to be stated in a record: given names and surnames, age, civil status, domicile, profession or occupation, nationality and origin, names of the parents and of the grandparents if they know them, absence of kinship between them that precludes marriage, having no legal impediment to contracting it, and the economic regime they adopt if they do not submit a deed of marital capitulations, and express declaration that they are not legally united in a de facto union with a third person.

The contracting party who had been married shall present the legal document evidencing the dissolution or non-subsistence of the prior marriage; if such contracting party had children, they shall prove that the obligation to support them is guaranteed; and if they have property of minors under their administration, they shall present the respective inventory.

The contracting party who is a foreigner or naturalized Guatemalan shall prove in a conclusive manner his or her identity and freedom of marital status. Prior to the celebration of the marriage, edicts shall be published in the Official Gazette and in another newspaper of wider circulation, for a term of 15 days, calling upon those who know of any legal impediment to the same to report it.

If the marriage is not celebrated within six months of publication of the edicts, they shall lose their legal effect.

The health certificate is mandatory for both prospective spouses. It shall be issued at public medical care centers or by an active licensed physician and surgeon, stating that the examined person does not suffer from an incurable contagious disease harmful to the other spouse or the offspring, or that such person has no physical defects that make procreation impossible. Persons residing in places where there is no active licensed physician and surgeon or public medical care centers, and those who have already had de facto relations that render said certificate unnecessary, are not required to present a health certificate.

Once the public official has ascertained the capacity of the contracting parties and, where applicable, compliance with the requirements demanded by the preceding articles has been met, he shall, if the contracting parties so request, set a day and time for the celebration of the marriage, or shall proceed to its immediate celebration.

The contracting parties being present, the public official who is to authorize the marriage shall proceed to read articles 78 and 108 to 112 of this Code; he shall receive from each of the spouses their express consent to take each other, respectively, as husband and wife and, thereupon, shall declare them united in marriage.

The record shall be accepted and signed by the spouses and the witnesses, if any, those who do not know how to do so placing their fingerprint, in addition to the authorizing public official.

Once the marriage has been performed, the public official who authorizes it shall immediately deliver a certificate of the act to the contracting parties, shall annotate the vecindad cards and other identification documents presented to him, and shall send notice to the respective Vecindad Card Registry Office within the 15 days following the celebration of said act, so that the corresponding entries may be made.

Marriage records shall be entered in a special book that the municipalities must keep.

Notaries shall record the marriage in a notarial record that must be protocolized, and ministers of religions, in books duly authorized by the Ministry of Governance.

Within the fifteen working days following the celebration of the marriage, the mayor who authorized it shall send to the corresponding Civil Register a certified copy of the record, and, likewise, the notaries and ministers of worship shall send a detailed notice. Failure to comply with this obligation shall be sanctioned, in each case, with a fine of one to five quetzales, which the local judge shall impose in favor of the municipality.

All days and hours are valid for the celebration of marriage. The proceedings, records, certifications, notices and notarial copies relating thereto shall be drawn up on plain paper.

When it concerns marriages to be celebrated outside the perimeter of the municipal seat, the mayor, or whoever acts in his stead, shall attend wherever necessary, provided that the interested parties provide the means of transportation.

In case of serious illness of one or both contracting parties, marriage may be authorized without observing the established formalities, provided that there is no ostensible and evident impediment rendering the act illegal and that the consent of the ill contracting party or parties is clearly established. The public official shall attend at the place where required by the interested parties.

Against the acts and orders of the public official who is to solemnize the marriage, which place an undue obstacle to its celebration, the interested parties may resort to the First Instance or peace judges of the jurisdiction, who, in view of the justifications submitted to them, shall resolve as appropriate, without any delay.

Military personnel and other individuals belonging to the Army, who are on campaign or in a besieged place, may contract marriage before the head of the corps or of the place, provided they have no notorious impediment rendering the union impossible. Within fifteen days after the termination of the campaign or the lifting of the siege, the original record of the marriage shall be sent to the corresponding Civil Register.