If you were planning to get married within the next 90days and have already applied and paid for your marriage licence and certificate, the Department of Internal Affairs in New Zealand are offering couples the opportunity to apply for a refund.
To be eligible you will need to have postponed your wedding past the expiry date of your marriage licence due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
You can also apply for a refund if you have needed to cancel your wedding due to the pandemic. If approved, the refund will include the marriage licence fee plus the marriage certificate fee (if you have pre-ordered a certificate).
To request your refund follow the simple steps below:
1: Email: [email protected]
2: Subject: “Request for marriage licence refund”
3: Body of the email to include: Your notice number, your full legal name, address, email and phone number. Your partners full legal name, address, email and phone number. Your reason for requesting the refund (i.e. could not travel to wedding location due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.)
It is expected that refunds will take approximately 4weeks to process.
If you are postponing your wedding to a later date you will need to re-apply for a new marriage licence and certificate once you have confirmed your new date. It is important to remember that a New Zealand marriage licence is only valid for 90days from the date of issue so it is recommended that you put a reminder in your diary to re-apply closer to the time. You can apply for your new marriage licence online here: https://marriages.services.govt.nz.
