If your company operates in Guatemala, your Occupational Health and Safety Plan has a medical component — and the physician who drafts and signs it must be registered with the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (MINTRAB). The Registry of Physicians who draft and sign Occupational Health and Safety Plans (service 1921 on Guatemala’s official procedures portal) adds the doctor to the database of the Department of Occupational Health and Safety (Depto. de SSO) so they can sign OHS Plans after being authorized and verified. It is the medical link in the compliance chain created by Acuerdo Gubernativo 229-2014, Guatemala’s OHS Regulation.
Quick summary: Free (Q0) filing with MINTRAB. Term: 2 business days. Result: registration certificate (Constancia de registro). Applies to: physicians with the Médico y Cirujano degree and active college membership who draft and sign OHS Plans. Location: 7a avenida 3-33 zona 9, Torre Empresarial, 7th floor (OHS Department offices, MINTRAB, Guatemala City). Filing quirk: the file goes in a black plastic folder with a transparent cover, plus a CD with the complete digital file in PDF. Legal basis: Acuerdo Gubernativo 229-2014.
Information verified June 2026 against the official record at tramites.gob.gt/servicio/1921.
Procedure facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Official service | 1921 — Registry of Physicians who draft and sign Occupational Health and Safety Plans |
| Entity | MINTRAB — Department of Occupational Health and Safety |
| Cost | Q0 (free) |
| Time | 2 business days |
| Result | Registration certificate (Constancia de registro) |
| Mode | In person (the official record directs filing at the OHS Department offices) |
| Where | 7a avenida 3-33 zona 9, Torre Empresarial, 7th floor, Guatemala City |
| Legal basis | Acuerdo Gubernativo 229-2014 (Occupational Health and Safety Regulation) |
| Validity / renewal | Not specified in the official record |
Who needs this registry
Physicians. If you draft and sign Occupational Health and Safety Plans for companies in Guatemala — the occupational-medicine component of an employer’s prevention program — this registry places you in the OHS Department’s database, which per the official record is what enables you to sign Plans after being authorized and verified.
Employers and compliance leads — especially foreign-owned companies. This is the part most foreign employers miss: before you pay for an OHS Plan, verify that the physician signing it holds the MINTRAB registration certificate. The registration is free and takes two business days, so an unregistered “occupational doctor” has no excuse. A plan signed by an unregistered physician is a compliance exposure you can eliminate by asking one question before signing the engagement.
Foreign physicians. The official record covers the case: you file a photocopy of your passport instead of the Guatemalan DPI. But the file also demands a photostat of the Médico y Cirujano degree and a recent active professional college certificate — so current collegiation in Guatemala is an unavoidable part of the package. If your medical degree is foreign, plan for the Guatemalan collegiation track before this registry; the registry itself cannot be completed without that certificate.
Complete requirements (official record)
Per the official record at tramites.gob.gt/servicio/1921, the file must contain:
- Letter addressed to the head office (jefatura) of the OHS Department — in original and copy.
- CV (hoja de vida).
- Photocopy of DPI, or of your passport if you are a foreigner.
- Photostat of the Médico y Cirujano degree (Guatemala’s physician-and-surgeon title).
- Recent active professional college certificate (constancia de colegiado activo).
- Photocopies of documents supporting your OHS experience — certificates, diplomas, occupational-health roles held.
- One ID-size (cédula-size) photograph.
The filing quirk nobody expects: the black folder and the CD. The official steps for service 1921 require the complete file to be submitted in a plastic folder, BLACK, with a transparent cover, and to include a CD containing the complete digital file in PDF format. Not a yellow folder, not a USB stick, not an email: black folder with transparent cover, plus a CD of PDFs. Showing up at the zona 9 counter with a perfect file in the wrong folder — or without the disc — is the most avoidable way to waste the trip. Scan everything before you go and burn the CD in the same order as the paper file.
Where to file
Department of Occupational Health and Safety (Depto. de SSO) Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (MINTRAB) 7a avenida 3-33 zona 9, Torre Empresarial, 7th floor Guatemala City
The official record directs delivery of the complete file at these offices. With a conforming file, the official term for the registration certificate is 2 business days.
How it fits the AG 229-2014 ecosystem
Acuerdo Gubernativo 229-2014 created a family of registries, all handled by the same OHS Department. This one is the physician-specific piece; these are its siblings:
| Registry | Who registers |
|---|---|
| Physicians who sign OHS Plans (this page) | Doctors who draft and sign Occupational Health and Safety Plans |
| Individual and diverse OHS professionals | OHS consultants, engineers, trainers, and technicians as natural persons |
| Prevention plan monitors | Those who externally verify plan implementation |
| Bipartite OHS committees | Each company’s employer-worker committee |
The regulation’s logic for an employer: constitute your OHS committee, train your staff through registered providers, and make sure your Plan carries the signatures of registered professionals — including the physician for the health component. Each link is checked against the OHS Department’s database. Browse the full catalog in our trámites index.
Common filing mistakes
- Wrong folder color or missing transparent cover. The formality is literal: black plastic folder with a transparent cover. It is the easiest requirement to meet and the most frequently ignored.
- Skipping the CD with the PDF file. The complete digital file in PDF on a CD is part of the official steps. Without the disc, the file is incomplete.
- Letter without original and copy. The letter to the OHS Department’s head office must be filed in original and copy. Bringing a single version means a second trip.
- A college certificate that is not recent. The record asks for a recent active-collegiation certificate. Request a fresh one from the Colegio before assembling the file; don’t recycle one from months ago.
- CV with no documentary backing for OHS experience. Photocopies supporting OHS experience are their own requirement (item 6), separate from the CV. A résumé that mentions occupational health without copies to prove it leaves the file short.
- Confusing this registry with the individual professionals registry. They are different procedures at the same Department. Physicians who sign OHS Plans need this one (service 1921); the individual OHS professionals registry covers the other OHS profiles.
- Expired passport (foreign physicians). The passport replaces the DPI in the file; present it valid, together with the active Guatemalan college certificate.
What the official record does NOT say
So no one sells you “facts” that don’t exist: the record for service 1921 does not specify a validity period for the registration, renewal rules or fees, or any online filing option. Any site asserting those conditions is making them up. For questions about keeping the registration current, the source is the OHS Department counter in zona 9.
Sources
- Official record for service 1921: tramites.gob.gt/servicio/1921 — Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, Department of Occupational Health and Safety. Read and verified: June 2026.
- Acuerdo Gubernativo 229-2014, Occupational Health and Safety Regulation (the legal basis cited by the official record).
Last verified: June 11, 2026.