The amphur: how a death is registered in Thailand
Not sure where to start? Start here
Written by Greg Berryman. Sources last checked 9 August 2026.
If this has already happened, start with what to do when someone dies in Thailand.
The amphur is the district office. It is where a death becomes official, and it is the only place that issues the certificate everything else depends on.
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What is the amphur in Thailand?
The district administrative office. Thailand is divided into districts and each has one. In Bangkok they are called khet, and the office does the same job.
The Thai word is อำเภอ, rendered amphoe under the Royal Thai General System of Transcription and written amphur nearly everywhere else. It names the district itself. The office is ที่ว่าการอำเภอ, though in English both are called the amphur.
Under section 8/2 of the Civil Registration Act B.E. 2534 (1991) the District Chief Officer is the District Registrar, and it is a registrar who takes the report of a death and issues the certificate. Not the hospital. Not the police. Not your embassy.
Who has to report a death in Thailand, and how soon?
Within twenty four hours, under section 21, and who does it depends on where the person died.
| Where the person died | Who must report it |
|---|---|
| In a house | The householder, or whoever found the body if there is no householder |
| Anywhere else | Whoever was with the person, or whoever found the body |
A death outside a house can be reported to an administrative or police officer rather than at the office itself. If getting there is genuinely difficult, the deadline can be stretched, but never past seven days.
Not reporting carries a fine of up to a thousand baht, under section 47. Nothing else can happen until the death is registered.
Who is the householder when the person who died was the householder?
Whoever is responsible for looking after the house at that time.
Section 4 defines a householder as the head of the family who possesses the house as owner, tenant or in any other status. The same section provides that where there is no householder, or the householder is away, dead, disappeared, missing or unable to perform his duties, the person responsible for looking after the house at that time is deemed the householder.
A foreigner who owns or rents the place he lives in is the householder of it, and a condominium unit counts: section 35 gives each unit its own house number and treats each as one house. So where a foreign resident dies at home, the householder is dead, and the partner or friend looking after the place is deemed the householder from that moment.
Section 21 puts the report on the householder. Section 22 gives the certificate to whoever files it. Together they point at the person living in the property rather than at a relative arriving from abroad a week later.
That is what the Act says. Whether a particular district office applies it that way to a foreign partner is not published in English, and it is the same open question as the one below on what an office asks a foreigner to produce.
Can somebody report the death for you?
Yes.
Section 46 lets whoever is supposed to report the death hand that job to someone else. The law then treats the report as if they had made it themselves.
That matters, because the certificate goes to whoever files the report, and the person who needs it is often not the person standing in the district office. It is also the cheapest thing anyone can arrange in advance: decide who should file it, and tell them.
What does the amphur issue?
The death certificate, to the person who files the report.
That is section 22, and it is why only one original exists. What that means in practice, and what to do where it has gone to the wrong person, is on the Thai death certificate.
Is the hospital's paper the same thing?
No.
Under section 23, whoever was with the person when they died issues a paper certifying the death, on the official form. That is what the registrar uses to register it. It is not the death certificate, and holding it does not mean anything has been registered.
Can the body be moved, buried or cremated first?
Not lawfully.
Section 24 says the body may not be kept, buried, cremated, destroyed or taken out of the house or the area where the death happened until the registrar allows it, and then only to the place named on the permit. An administrative or police officer can order a body moved if public safety requires it.
A hospital or a funeral director normally handles this. Worth knowing it exists before you agree to anything.
What happens if the death was sudden or unnatural?
The certificate stops.
Under section 25, if there is reason to think the person died of a dangerous infectious disease or from an unnatural cause, the registrar has to tell the relevant official or the police, and must hold the death certificate back until that official approves it.
That is what sits behind the post-mortem delay on what to do when someone dies in Thailand, and the sequence it sits inside is on what happens when a foreigner dies in Thailand.
Can a foreigner report a death at the amphur?
The Act does not say otherwise. Sections 4, 21 and 46 turn on who was present, who found the body, who keeps or looks after the house, or who has been authorised, rather than on nationality or family relationship.
What a particular district office asks to see from a foreigner filing a report is not published in English, and it varies. Expect to be asked for your own passport and the passport of the person who died. That question is with a Thai lawyer.
What will the amphur not do for you?
- It will not issue the certificate in English. It is in Thai, and the translation is your cost.
- It will not deal with your embassy. No embassy can register the death or get the certificate for you, and every government that publishes on this says so.
- It will not release the body. That takes a letter from your embassy. See the embassy release letter.
- It will not touch the estate. That takes a court. See the court order that unfreezes a Thai bank account, and what an estate administrator has to do once appointed.
What is in the pack?
The pages on this site are free and stay free.
After a Death in Thailand is for someone dealing with a death that has already happened. It is printable, and it contains:
- A checklist that runs in order: the first hour, the first day, the first week, before the body moves, and afterwards.
- Every phone number you need, in the order you need them.
- A sheet to record who you spoke to, when, and what they said they would do.
- The next of kin authorisation letter, in the wording the embassies ask for.
- A page to hand a funeral director, saying what you want and what to get in writing.
- A page for deciding between cremation here and bringing the body home.
- Separate sections for British, American, Australian, Canadian, New Zealand and Irish nationals, and one for every other nationality.
PDF and Word, $39.
If you are working out what your own people would face rather than dealing with it now, the guide is the other one. It is written for people living in Thailand and for what has to be arranged in advance.
Sources
- Civil Registration Act B.E. 2534 (1991), English translation published by the Department of Provincial Administration. Section 4 on the definitions of house and householder, including the person responsible for looking after the house being deemed the householder where the householder is dead, away, missing or unable to perform his duties, section 8/2 on district registrars, section 21 on who must report a death and within what period, section 22 on the issue of the certificate to the person who files the report, section 23 on the document certifying the death, section 24 on moving, burying or cremating a body, section 25 on suspension where the cause is unnatural or contagious, section 35 on a house number for each condominium unit and each unit being deemed one house, section 46 on authorising another person to report, and section 47 on the penalty for failing to report.
- The Department of Provincial Administration states that its translation is prepared for information purposes only and that the original Thai text as formally adopted and published remains the sole authoritative text having the force of law. No official English text of Thai legislation exists. Thai legal review of these sections is under way. Section numbers are given so the provisions can be checked directly. See about this site.
- What a district office asks a foreigner to produce when filing a report, and whether it applies the section 4 definition of householder to a foreign partner living in the property, are not published in English by any source found. Both are open questions with a Thai lawyer.
- That no embassy can register the death or obtain the certificate is published by the governments themselves, each linked on its own page: British nationals, American nationals, Australian nationals, Canadian nationals, New Zealand nationals, Irish nationals and every other nationality.