Tarrant County has become the first public agency in the state to issue remote licenses, via gov tech from GovOS, according to a statement from the Austin-based company. GovOS also sells business permitting, tax filing, public records, community engagement and other tools.
The company’s Remote Marriage License Issuance License System launches in the county — whose seat is Fort Worth — after winning approval to use the technology from the Texas Office of Court Administration.
GovOS says its tool was the first to win approval from the state, whose lawmakers in 2021 made it legal for county clerks to issue remote marriage licenses.
The company's remote marriage license tech also is used in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Even as the U.S. marriage rate has recently dropped, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, and younger people are putting off marriage, about 1.68 million marriages took place in the country in 2020.
In Texas, Mary Louise Nicholson, the Tarrant County clerk, said that this newest gov tech deployment will help public officials better serve a wide variety of residents, including those who tend to move around more often for their jobs compared with other workers.
“We are looking to serve military service men and women and those people who do not want to make the drive to get their marriage licenses,” she said in a statement. “You don’t have to ask for leave. You can be in the comfort of your home or at your military base.”
According to GovOS, the remote marriage license procedure involves such features an an instructional web page that details the application steps; an online form for the marriage application; fee processing; digital uploading of supporting documents such as IDs; electronic signatures and printouts.
“We’re proud to be the solution of choice for Tarrant County as they lead the way in Texas for remote marriage licenses,” said Michael Crosno, CEO of GovOS. “Mary Louise and her team have worked extremely hard to provide Tarrant County citizens with best-in-class services, and the launch of their remote marriage license platform is just another example of Tarrant County putting the needs of citizens first.”
