**********************************************************
The Registrar of Marriages from today (March 20) invites applications from people wishing to be appointed civil celebrants.
An Immigration Department spokesman said that solicitors and public notaries meeting paragraphs 1 and 2 of the eligibility criteria for civil celebrants specified in Schedule 4 of the Marriage Ordinance, Cap 181 are eligible to apply.
Paragraph 3 of the eligibility criteria provides that the applicant should have completed a training course organised for the purposes of the Marriage Ordinance as the Registrar may specify. To enable the applicant to meet this criterion, the Registrar will, after receipt of the applications and on a first-come, first-served basis, invite those applicants who have satisfied paragraphs 1 and 2 of the eligibility criteria to attend a training course organised by the Registrar.
The spokesman added that the information on how to become a civil celebrant and the obligations of a civil celebrant are provided in the information pamphlet entitled "How to Apply - Becoming a Civil Celebrant of Marriages". The pamphlets and the application forms can be obtained free of charge from the Information and Liaison Section, the Marriage Registration and Records Office or any of the marriage registries of the Immigration Department; the Law Society of Hong Kong; or the Hong Kong Society of Notaries. The application forms may also be downloaded from the Immigration Department website at www.immd.gov.hk.
Ends/Monday, March 20, 2006
Issued at HKT 09:23
NNNN