What to do when someone dies in Thailand
Written by Greg Berryman. Sources last checked 9 August 2026.
If this has just happened, start here. The order below is the order things actually happen in, not the order they are usually written about.
Who do you call first?
If the death happened outside a hospital, the police have to be told before anything else can proceed. Their report is what the district office needs to 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 hospital, the hospital handles the first steps and notifies the police itself.
What is the number for your embassy?
All published by the governments themselves, checked on 9 August 2026.
- United Kingdom. British Embassy Bangkok, +66 (0) 2 305 8333. The FCDO gives that number specifically for a suspicious death, a death involving a child, multiple deaths, or a case of murder or manslaughter. From the UK, the FCDO 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 consular emergencies the Australian government runs a 24-hour Consular Emergency Centre in Canberra: +61 2 6261 3305 from overseas, 1300 555 135 from within Australia.
The three governments do different things once you reach them: see British nationals, American nationals and Australian nationals.
You may read elsewhere that the police will notify the embassy for you and that you should not do it yourself. Do not rely on that. Thai authorities normally notify the US Embassy, but no government publishes a promise that it will always happen, and the cost of a duplicate call is nothing.
Was there insurance?
Ask this early, because if the answer is yes, the insurer becomes the organisation that moves things rather than you.
Insurers appoint funeral directors in Thailand and at home, and may cover funeral costs, medical bills, legal fees and translation. The number to call is on the policy, which is usually in an email on the phone of the person who died.
Call the insurer before appointing a funeral director, not after. Policies commonly require the assistance company to arrange the work and authorise the cost in advance. See what it costs to repatriate a body from Thailand.
Where nobody knows whether there was a policy, the FCDO suggests checking with the bank, the credit card company or the employer. Where there was none, a relative or an appointed representative carries the cost. No embassy will pay for any of it.
What does the hospital give you, and what is it not?
A hospital issues a confirmation of death, sometimes called a notice of death, stating the cause. That is not the death certificate. People lose days to this.
The Thai death certificate is issued by the local district office, the amphur, at the moment the death is registered there. The hospital may deal with the amphur on the family's behalf. Otherwise it falls to the family, to an authorised friend or relative in Thailand, or to a funeral director.
Your embassy cannot register the death and cannot obtain the certificate for you. All three say so.
Why does it matter who registers the death?
Because the amphur issues one original death certificate, to the person who reports the death. Obtaining a duplicate later means engaging a Thai lawyer.
Every bank, insurer, land office and probate registry will want that document. If the person holding it is not the person who needs it, everything stalls. Where a funeral director registers the death, ask in writing at the outset that the original comes to you.
The full picture is on the Thai death certificate.
Will there be a post-mortem?
Probably, unless the death happened in hospital with a clear cause.
The body is usually taken to a forensic institution for formal identification, and where 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, published by the FCDO rather than asserted here. Small tissue samples and organs may be removed, retained for testing and not returned, without the consent of next of kin, and the family is not automatically told. Cultural or religious objections can be raised with the police, but may not be accommodated where the police consider the death suspicious.
The report is written in Thai and takes roughly six to eight weeks, sometimes longer.
Who is allowed to make the decisions?
Narrower than most people expect, and it depends on the passport.
The British government's definition is spouse, a child over 20, or a parent. The American one runs spouse, children, parents, siblings, grandparents, in that order. Australia publishes no definition at all.
An unmarried partner is not next of kin under any of them, however long the relationship. If that is your situation, you will need written authorisation from someone who is, and the UK publishes the exact wording it requires. This is the part that strands people, and it is covered on who can legally act and what happens to your partner.
What releases the body?
A letter from the embassy. A Thai hospital or local authority will not usually release a body for cremation, burial or repatriation without one, and each embassy issues it only to a person it recognises as next of kin, or to someone holding that person's written authority. See the embassy release letter.
Cremation here, or taking them home?
This is the decision everything else waits on, and it is close to irreversible.
Cremation in Thailand is the faster and far cheaper option, and the ashes can usually be carried home on a normal flight. Repatriation of the body runs to six figures in baht and takes weeks. Burial in Thailand is rare, expensive and difficult to arrange, and governments advise families who want a burial to consider repatriation instead.
If there is any prospect of a coroner's inquest at home, do not cremate here. A local cremation ends that possibility.
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?
Yes. Where arrangements have not been made within a set period, usually 30 days, the person is buried in a paupers' mass funeral. Consular staff may afterwards be able to find out where.
Set against that, a Thai court appointment is needed before anyone can reach the deceased's Thai bank accounts, and that is commonly a matter of months. The funeral has to be paid for long before the money becomes available to pay for it.
What can you stop worrying about?
- You do not have to stay until it is finished. Where the body is being repatriated, it follows later. Nobody has to sit in a hotel for six weeks.
- Ashes can usually be carried home without an embassy letter. You will need the death certificate and the certificate of cremation, and whatever the airline requires.
- The police attendance and the post-mortem are routine. They happen to everyone who dies suddenly here and are not a sign that anyone suspects you of anything.
What should you not do?
- 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 appoint 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 guide?
If you are reading this because it has already happened, the guide is not for you and nothing on this page is behind a payment.
If you are reading it to work out what your own people would face, that is what the guide is for: an asset and document inventory, the next of kin authorisation letter in the wording the embassies ask for, and separate modules for British, American and Australian citizens.
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, checked 9 August 2026.
- What to do when someone dies abroad, FCDO. Source of the UK 24-hour number.
- Death of a U.S. Citizen, US Embassy and Consulate in Thailand. Last modified 16 July 2026, checked 9 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.
- 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.