The embassy letter that releases the body
Not sure where to start? Start here
Written by Greg Berryman. Sources last checked 26 August 2026.
If this has already happened, start with what to do when someone dies in Thailand.
A hospital or local authority in Thailand will not usually hand over a body for cremation, burial or a flight home until it has a letter from the dead person's embassy. Nothing moves without it.
What is the embassy release letter?
It is the embassy confirming two things: that the person was one of its nationals, and that whoever is collecting the body is the right person to collect it.
It is not a legal ruling and it settles nothing about the estate. It exists so a Thai hospital, forensic institute or district office knows it is handing the body to the right person.
Every nationality needs one. How you get it differs.
How does a British national get a body released in Thailand?
From the British Embassy in Bangkok. You apply online and collect it from the embassy in person.
If you are in the UK rather than here, you have to appoint a funeral director or someone else in Thailand to apply for you.
The application asks for your passport, proof of how you were related to the person who died, and proof of death: the hospital's confirmation, a police report, or the Thai death certificate.
The rest of the British position is on when a British person dies in Thailand.
What letter does the US Embassy in Bangkok issue to release a body?
The forensic institute or hospital may want a letter of instruction from the US Embassy before it will hand the body over to next of kin or to someone they have named.
The Embassy says it can produce that letter once it has clear written instructions, either a will or a signed statement.
American Citizens Services has confirmed what that means. The signed statement is one written by the next of kin. A statement written in advance by the person who died only counts if it is a valid will. For an American, the will is the only thing you can prepare beforehand that names somebody outside the next of kin order.
If the only person here is an unmarried partner, the Embassy works down its list trying to reach next of kin, and can issue the letter to the partner once a family member is reached and agrees to it.
The Embassy also asks next of kin to send the will, if there is one, to American Citizens Services by email or fax.
The rest of the American position is on when an American dies in Thailand.
Who does the Australian Embassy give the release letter to?
If the death happened in hospital, the funeral director usually deals with the embassy and gets the letter.
If there was a post-mortem, next of kin need a letter from the embassy letting them collect the body before they can go and register the death.
If the person who died has a Thai spouse, or a friend or family member here, those people often make the arrangements themselves rather than hiring a funeral director. Then the letter goes to next of kin, or sometimes straight to the hospital.
Australian consular correspondence with this site states that where next of kin cannot be identified or will not act, a letter allowing release of the body may be issued to a Thai partner, spouse or friend so the funeral can be arranged, and that in many cases next of kin in Australia authorise release to a Thai partner whether or not the couple were married. If no next of kin can be identified at all, the emergency contact on the dead person's most recent passport application is contacted first.
Treat that as practice rather than policy. The source was clear that some of it comes from experience rather than published guidance, that treatment of a foreigner's death differs from province to province and hospital to hospital, and that rules change or get interpreted differently.
Australia has a Consulate-General in Phuket, which is normally told alongside the Embassy in Bangkok.
The rest of the Australian position is on when an Australian dies in Thailand.
How does the Canadian Embassy decide who collects the body?
Canada has described the whole sequence, and it runs through the family rather than through a published list.
The Embassy of Canada in Bangkok has told this site that when it is notified of a death it asks Ottawa to search for next of kin. Once they are identified the RCMP notifies them, and they are told to contact Global Affairs Canada, which provides its guidance and a list of international funeral homes in Thailand. Global Affairs passes the family's decision back to the Embassy, which issues the authorisation letter to the individual or funeral home the family has consented to.
A legally married spouse is treated as next of kin, the Embassy confirmed, answering a question about same-sex marriage specifically.
Two answers matter to anyone unmarried. Where Ottawa's attempts to trace next of kin or an emergency contact are unsuccessful, the Embassy will treat an unmarried partner as next of kin and issue the letter to the partner. And where an unmarried partner is identified as the deceased's next of kin in the will, the partner becomes next of kin.
That second route is the only one a person can arrange in advance for themselves. It matches what the United States said from the other direction, that a statement made ahead of time carries weight only if it is a valid will.
The Embassy did not address what happens where next of kin are found and refuse to act. The rest of the Canadian position is on when a Canadian dies in Thailand.
Can a New Zealander get a body released in Thailand?
New Zealand publishes nothing about how it issues the letter.
The New Zealand Embassy in Bangkok was asked on 10 August 2026 how it defines next of kin for the purpose of that letter, and whether that definition is published anywhere. It replied on 26 August 2026 that it had no further published information to add beyond the guidance already available on SafeTravel. SafeTravel does not define the term.
That does not mean there is no letter. A Thai hospital will want one whatever the passport, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade leaves the arrangements to next of kin or someone they appoint. Expect to be asked for proof that you are next of kin, and for written permission if you are not.
The full position is on when a New Zealander dies in Thailand.
Can an Irish family get a body released in Thailand?
Ireland publishes nothing about the letter either.
What its Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade does publish is the step before it. The Department arranges through An Garda Síochána for next of kin in Ireland to be informed, and a footnote adds that data may be shared with the General Register Office in order to establish next of kin information. So the trace runs on Irish civil registration records, and whoever it produces is the person the Department then deals with.
A Thai hospital will still want a letter naming who the body may go to. Expect to be asked for proof that you are next of kin, and for written permission if you are not.
The full position, including the Record of Deaths Abroad and the Irish coroner route, is on when an Irish person dies in Thailand.
What if your government is none of those?
The system is the same, and six governments describe it the same way: the Thai authorities want a letter from the embassy saying who the body can go to, and the embassy wants written confirmation from next of kin before it writes one. Those six are the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
The Dutch page is in English and is the clearest of them. It, and where every other embassy in Thailand is, are on your embassy in Thailand.
What if you are not next of kin, and need the body released?
You need written permission from someone who is, unless your government is one of the two that has said otherwise.
The UK service page publishes the exact wording that permission has to use. Take it from the page rather than writing your own.
One practical detail on the same page: if you are not next of kin, the letter can only be collected at the British Embassy in Bangkok or posted to an address in Thailand. It will not be sent abroad.
This is how an unmarried partner ends up unable to get the body released. Each embassy issues its letter only to someone it counts as next of kin, or to someone holding that person's written permission, and governments do not agree on who next of kin is. Canada and Australia have both said a partner can be issued the letter in defined circumstances, and the four others have not. See who can legally act.
What can you do in advance?
- Find out who your embassy would treat as next of kin, and whether that person exists, can be reached, and would help.
- Name the person you want in your will. For a Canadian that makes them next of kin on the Embassy's own answer. For an American it is the only document prepared in advance that the Embassy will act on. See wills in Thailand, and which country's law applies.
- Make sure that person knows. Tell them what you would want, and check they are willing to act.
- Check the emergency contact on your passport application. For an Australian it is the name the government will try when it cannot identify next of kin. For a Canadian, Ottawa searches for an emergency contact as well as next of kin. The others have not said what they do with it. Check the name on yours is current either way.
- Write the embassy's number down somewhere findable, with your passport details, rather than assuming whoever is with you will know where to start.
The wider sequence, from the hospital through the forensic institute to the district office, is on what happens when a foreigner dies in Thailand.
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
- What to do after a British person dies in Thailand, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, last updated 20 November 2024
- Get a letter to release a body in Thailand, UK government service
- Death of a U.S. Citizen, US Embassy Bangkok, last updated 16 July 2026
- American Citizens Services, US Embassy Bangkok, in correspondence with this site, 10 August 2026, for the meaning of a signed statement, and for the handling of a letter of instruction where the only person present in Thailand is an unmarried partner.
- When Someone Dies in Thailand, Australian Embassy Bangkok
- Australian consular correspondence with this site, 10 August 2026, for the passport emergency contact and the release of remains where next of kin cannot be identified or will not act. Not published in any Australian government guidance, and the source is not named at their request. The source was clear that some of what was described reflects experience rather than stated policy, and that treatment of a foreigner's death can vary from province to province and hospital to hospital.
- Consular Section, Embassy of Canada to Thailand, in correspondence with this site, 12 August 2026, for the tracing sequence through Ottawa and the RCMP, the issue of the authorisation letter to the individual or funeral home the family consents to, the treatment of a legally married spouse as next of kin, the treatment of an unmarried partner as next of kin where tracing is unsuccessful, and the position that a partner identified as next of kin in the will becomes next of kin. Not published in any Global Affairs Canada guidance.
- New Zealand Embassy Bangkok, in correspondence with this site, 26 August 2026, answering questions put on 10 August 2026 on the definition of next of kin for the release letter and whether it is published, the treatment of a same-sex spouse, and the release of remains where the only person present in Thailand is an unmarried partner or where no next of kin can be identified. The Embassy stated that it had no further published information to add beyond the guidance already available on SafeTravel, and did not answer the second and third questions.
- Death abroad, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ireland, for the Garda notification and the footnote that data may be shared with the General Register Office to establish next of kin information. Page modified by the Department on 11 June 2025, checked 12 August 2026.
- Death of a Dutch national in Thailand, NetherlandsWorldwide, and Todesfall in Thailand, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Switzerland, for the same mechanism described independently.
- That New Zealand and Ireland publish no description of the release letter is a statement about what could be found on their published pages, not a statement that no such letter is issued.