What to do when someone dies in Thailand
Written by Greg Berryman. Sources last checked 12 September 2026.
If this has just happened, start here.
If this is not your situation: the person is alive and in hospital, they were here on a visit, or you are not in Thailand.
Who do you call first when someone dies in Thailand?
The police, if the death did not happen in a hospital. Nothing else can start until they have been told, because their report is what the district office needs before it will register the death.
- 191, general emergency, Royal Thai Police. The operator may not speak English.
- 1155, Tourist Police. English speaking, and the number to use if 191 is not working for you.
- 1669, medical emergency and ambulance.
If the death happened in a hospital, the hospital calls them for you and handles the first steps.
The pages here are free. If you would rather have it printed and in order, After a Death in Thailand is a checklist that runs in sequence, the numbers in the order you need them with room for the ones only you can add, the next of kin authorisation letter and a page to hand a funeral director. PDF and Word, $39. See what is in it.
Every box with an underlined heading opens the page that explains it.
Jump to
What is the emergency number for your embassy in Thailand?
All published by the governments themselves. Canada, New Zealand and Ireland checked 12 August 2026, the rest 9 August 2026.
- United Kingdom. British Embassy Bangkok, +66 (0) 2 305 8333. The British Foreign Office gives that number for a suspicious death, a death involving a child, multiple deaths, or a case of murder or manslaughter. From the UK, it answers 24 hours a day on 020 7008 5000.
- United States. American Citizens Services, 02-205-4000 from inside Thailand, +66-2-205-4000 from outside, in and out of office hours.
- Australia. Embassy Bangkok switchboard +66 2 344 6300. Consulate-General in Phuket +66 (0) 76 317 700. For emergencies there is a 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre in Canberra: +61 2 6261 3305 from overseas, 1300 555 135 from within Australia.
- Canada. Embassy of Canada Bangkok +66 (0) 2646 4300. Outside business hours that call transfers to the Emergency Watch and Response Centre in Ottawa, which runs 24 hours: +1 613 996 8885, collect calls accepted where available, or toll free from inside Thailand on 001-800-156-220-0142.
- New Zealand. The consular emergency line runs 24 hours on +64 99 20 20 20 from outside New Zealand, or 0800 30 10 30 from within. A death overseas counts as an emergency, so you are not expected to wait for New Zealand business hours. New Zealand Embassy Bangkok +66 2254 2530.
- Ireland. Embassy of Ireland Bangkok +66 2 016 1360, which is also the number the Department gives for emergencies. Outside opening hours the same number takes a message on the Duty Officer voice mailbox. The Consular Assistance Unit in Dublin answers on +353 1 408 2527, and the Dublin Duty Officer on +353 1 408 2000.
Every other nationality is on your embassy in Thailand. The Thai side of the process does not change with the passport. What changes is what your own government will do.
The governments do different things once you reach them: see British nationals, American nationals, Australian nationals, Canadian nationals, New Zealand nationals and Irish nationals.
You may read that the police will tell the embassy for you and that you should not call yourself. Do not count on it. Thai authorities usually notify the US Embassy, but no government promises it always happens, and one extra phone call costs nothing.
Did they have travel or medical insurance?
Ask early. If the answer is yes, the insurer does the work instead of you. Plenty of long-term residents hold none, so do not assume a policy will turn up.
Insurers appoint funeral directors here and at home, and may cover the funeral, the medical bills, legal fees and translation. The number is on the policy, and the policy is usually in an email on the phone of the person who died.
Call the insurer before you hire a funeral director, not after. Most policies say their own people have to arrange the work and agree the cost first. Pay for something yourself and the insurer may refuse it. See what it costs to repatriate a body from Thailand.
If nobody knows whether there was a policy, try the bank, the credit card company and the employer. Cover is often attached to a card or an account rather than bought separately.
If there was no policy, the cost sits with next of kin. No embassy pays for any of it. Where next of kin are in another country, whoever is here often ends up paying and waiting to be repaid, and that is worth saying out loud to the family early rather than late.
Is the hospital's paper the Thai death certificate?
No, and this catches people out.
A hospital issues a confirmation of death, sometimes called a notice of death, saying what the person died of. The real certificate comes later, from the local district office, the amphur, at the moment the death is registered there.
The hospital may deal with the amphur for the family. If it does not, it falls to the family, to a friend or relative here, or to a funeral director.
The death has to be reported within twenty four hours, and the law says who has to do it. See registering the death at the amphur.
Your embassy cannot register the death and cannot get the certificate for you. All three say so.
Why does it matter who registers the death?
The district office prints one original, and gives it to whoever reports the death. A certified copy of the death registration can be requested afterwards under section 6 of the Civil Registration Act, though it is a copy of the register entry rather than a second original, and whether an institution that asks for the original will take one instead is unresolved.
Every bank, insurer, land office and probate office will ask to see it. If it ended up with the wrong person, everything stops.
If a funeral director is registering the death, ask in writing, at the start, that the original comes to you.
The full picture is on the Thai death certificate.
Will you be asked to identify the body?
Probably not. The body usually goes to a forensic institute to be formally identified, and where the person had their passport with them, that is a paperwork match done by the hospital, the police or the institute. Neither the British nor the American guidance requires next of kin to view the body.
You are asked when the documents do not settle it. If that happens, one person can go rather than the whole family, and it does not have to be a relative: a friend, a lawyer, a doctor or the funeral director can do it, and you are entitled to be told what condition the remains are in first. Identifying someone does not make you next of kin and does not get the body released. What that takes, and what happens where remains cannot be identified visually, is on what happens when a foreigner dies in Thailand.
Will there be a post-mortem in Thailand?
Probably, unless the death happened in hospital with a clear cause.
If the death was sudden, unexplained, violent or accidental, a post-mortem normally follows. The police attending is routine and is not an accusation.
Two things the family cannot control, both published by the British Foreign Office. Small tissue samples and organs may be removed, kept for testing and not returned, without asking next of kin, and the family is not automatically told. You can raise religious or cultural objections with the police, but they may not be accommodated if the police think the death is suspicious.
The report is written in Thai and takes roughly six to eight weeks, sometimes longer. How you obtain a copy differs by nationality and is on the nationality pages linked above.
Who counts as next of kin, and who decides?
It depends on the passport.
The United Kingdom counts a spouse, a child over 20, or a parent. The United States runs spouse, then children, then parents, then siblings, then grandparents, in that order. Australia says the closest living legal or blood relative, and sets out no order at all. Canada publishes no list: Ottawa traces the family and the release letter follows whatever they consent to. Ireland publishes no list either, and traces next of kin through An Garda Síochána and Irish civil registration records. New Zealand publishes nothing.
An unmarried partner is not next of kin under any of them, however long you were together. If that is you, you will need written permission from someone who is, and the UK publishes the exact wording to use. See who can legally act and what happens to your partner.
Two governments have said what happens where the family cannot be found at all, and the answers are on Canadian nationals and Australian nationals.
What releases the body from a Thai hospital?
A letter from the embassy.
A Thai hospital or local authority will not usually hand over a body for cremation, burial or a flight home without one. The embassy gives that letter only to someone it counts as next of kin, or to someone holding that person's written permission. See the embassy release letter.
Cremation in Thailand, or taking them home?
This is the decision everything else waits on, and you cannot undo it.
Cremation in Thailand is faster and far cheaper, and the ashes can usually be carried home on a normal flight. Flying the body home runs into six figures in baht and takes weeks. Burial here is rare, expensive and hard to arrange, and governments tell families who want one to think about taking the body home instead.
If there is any chance of a coroner's inquest at home, do not cremate here. It ends that possibility. Ireland is explicit about this, telling families they may ask an Irish coroner to examine the remains once they are home where a death overseas was unexplained or suspicious.
What each option costs, who pays, and how insurance works is on what it costs to repatriate a body from Thailand.
Is there a deadline before a paupers' funeral?
Yes. If nothing has been arranged within a set period, usually 30 days, the person is buried in a paupers' mass funeral. Consular staff may be able to find out where afterwards.
Meanwhile nobody can touch their Thai bank account. That needs a court order appointing someone to deal with the estate, and it usually takes months. The funeral has to be paid for long before that money comes free. See the court order that unfreezes a Thai bank account, and what an estate administrator has to do once appointed.
What can you stop worrying about?
- You do not have to stay until it is finished. If the body is going home, it follows later.
- Ashes can usually be carried home without an embassy letter. You will need the death certificate, the cremation certificate, and whatever the airline asks for.
- The police attendance and the post-mortem are routine. They normally follow a sudden death and are not a sign that anyone suspects you of anything.
- You will probably not be asked to look at the body. Identification is normally done from the passport by the authorities.
What should you not do after a death in Thailand?
- Do not assume the hospital's paper is the death certificate.
- Do not let the only original death certificate go to someone who will not need it.
- Do not hire a funeral director before speaking to the insurer.
- Do not cremate here if an inquest at home is possible.
- Do not expect the embassy to pay for anything, translate anything, or register the death.
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.
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
- Tourist assistance contact numbers, Government Public Relations Department, Thailand. Source of 191, 1155 and 1669.
- When someone dies in Thailand, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. Last updated by the FCDO on 20 November 2024, rechecked 12 September 2026. Source of the forensic institute and formal identification, and of the post-mortem position.
- 7 FAM 240, Identification of Remains, Foreign Affairs Manual, US Department of State, section 241, last changed 29 April 2021, checked 12 September 2026. Source of who may view the remains in place of a relative and of the briefing on their condition beforehand.
- What to do when someone dies abroad, FCDO. Source of the UK 24-hour number and of where to look for an insurance policy.
- Death of a U.S. Citizen, US Embassy and Consulate in Thailand. Last modified 16 July 2026, checked 9 August 2026.
- What happens if you die overseas and how you can prepare, Smartraveller, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, for the Australian definition of next of kin. Checked 11 August 2026.
- When Someone Dies in Thailand and Contact us, Australian Embassy Bangkok. Funeral costs published as at January 2026, contact details checked 9 August 2026.
- Embassies, consulates and offices for Thailand and Request emergency assistance outside Canada, Global Affairs Canada. Source of the Bangkok number, the Emergency Watch and Response Centre number and the toll free number from inside Thailand. Pages modified by Global Affairs Canada on 5 August 2026 and 30 April 2026, both checked 12 August 2026.
- Contact us, SafeTravel, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and New Zealand Embassy to Thailand. Source of the New Zealand consular emergency numbers and the Bangkok number. Checked 12 August 2026.
- Contact the Embassy of Ireland, Thailand, Assistance abroad and Death abroad, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Source of the Irish numbers, the Garda notification and the Irish coroner route. Checked 12 August 2026.
- Consular Section, Embassy of Canada to Thailand, in correspondence with this site, 12 August 2026, for the Canadian position on next of kin. Not published in any Global Affairs Canada guidance.
- Civil Registration Act B.E. 2534 (1991), section 6 on applying for a copy of a death registration and on having the registrar certify one, and section 21 on the twenty four hour reporting requirement. English translation published by the Department of Provincial Administration. No official English text of Thai legislation exists. Only the Thai text as published in the Royal Gazette has legal force.
- Whether Thai law itself compels a formal identification, and whose identification a Thai institution will accept, is not addressed in any government source used here. It is with the Thai legal review.
- The months-long timescale for reaching a deceased person's Thai bank accounts is a range reported by Thai law firms rather than an official published figure. Everything else on this page comes from the government sources above.