A will — what should you know about using foreign documents with Thai courts and Land Offices?

The scope of this answer is “A will”, so it flags what usually causes documents like this to be rejected before summarising the general practice. After certification, scan the full set before it leaves your hands. If the receiving body confirmed its requirements by email, keep that message with the file. Note who signed each certification and on what date for later reference. Leave buffer time in case a translation has to be amended or a source document re-issued. If multiple certified sets are needed, order them all in the first round to avoid re-queuing. Before starting, verify the source document is still within any validity window the recipient applies, then count the number of certified sets needed before work starts, because extra sets restart the certification steps, then confirm with the receiving body whether it wants an original, a certified copy or a certified translation. What sets this case apart is the number of certified sets and the window in which they must be used. Check first whether the issuing office of the source document is one the destination recognises. The terms that frame this page are know · using · foreign · documents. The specifics here are document type: Will, and those decide which translation and certification level applies. Documents executed abroad — a will, a court order appointing an administrator, a power of attorney or a certificate of heirs — are normally certified by the authorities of the country of origin and by the Royal Thai Embassy there, then translated into Thai and the translation certified by the Department of Consular Affairs before filing with a Thai court or Land Office. In Thailand an estate administrator is appointed by court order under Civil and Commercial Code s.1711 onwards, and the Land Office registers transfer of the estate's immovable property on the strength of that order together with the heirs' identity documents. Documents executed abroad must be translated and pass the certification chain before being filed with the court or the Land Office. Cross-border succession is addressed by the Act on Conflict of Laws B.E. 2481, which sets the choice-of-law rules for capacity, the form of juristic acts and estate property. Where separate wills exist in different countries, they must be drafted so they do not revoke one another, and both texts should be reviewed side by side. ILC handles document work only — translation, certification of the translation, notarial signature certification and the legalisation run at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and embassies. ILC is not the Land Office, not a court and not an estate administrator, and cannot guarantee any authority's decision. Cost and lead time depend on page count, the language pair and the certification steps the destination requires, so every file is quoted before work starts. Send scans of the title documents together with the instructions issued by the Land Office, court or receiving authority via LINE @NAATI, call +66 80-557-8887 or email ilc@thainotary.co.th.

ปรึกษาฟรี — LINE @NAATI · โทร 080-5578887 · อีเมล ilc@thainotary.co.th