Service of Process in Thailand: Serving Foreign Court Documents

Reviewed by Wichuda Atthamethakon, LL.M., Thai Bar Licence 3149/2556, for ThaiLawOnline, a Thai law firm acting for foreigners since 2006.

Last updated on 10 November 2026

We serve foreign court documents on people and companies in Thailand, and we prepare the affidavit of service your court needs. This service is for foreign law firms, process agents and litigants. We have done this work for many years.

• Who it is for: law firms, process servers and parties abroad who must serve a claim, summons, subpoena, order or notice on someone in Thailand.
• Fee: 20,000 to 30,000 THB per recipient, depending on the location and the number of attempts. We confirm the fee in writing before any work starts.
• What you receive: a signed affidavit of service with the date, time, place and method of service, and photographs where possible.

1. Send us the documents and the recipient’s details.
2. We confirm the fee and the expected date in writing.
3. A Thai lawyer goes to the recipient’s official address and hands over the documents.
4. If the recipient cannot be found, we send the documents by registered post with acknowledgement of receipt.
5. We prepare and sign the affidavit of service and send it to you.

How a Thai lawyer serves your documents

We follow the way a Thai court serves its own papers, so that the service is easy to prove and hard to challenge. Under the Civil Procedure Code, section 74, a court officer serves in the daytime, between sunrise and sunset, at the domicile or place of business of the person named in the document. Thai law defines a person’s domicile as the place of their principal residence (Civil and Commercial Code section 37).

For a Thai national, we go to the address in the house registration (tabien baan). That is the address Thai courts use, and it is the address the recipient has declared to the state. For a foreigner, we use the residence or business address you give us, checked against any address we can confirm locally. For a company, we go to its registered office as it appears on its DBD company certificate.

If the person is not there, a Thai court officer may leave the papers with an adult who lives or works at that address (section 76). If the person refuses to take them, the officer may leave them there in front of an official or police witness (section 78). We record exactly what happened at each visit, because your court will decide whether the service was good under its own rules.

When the recipient cannot be found

A Thai court may order service by registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt, which then has the same effect as service by a court officer (Civil Procedure Code section 73 bis). We do the same: when personal service fails, we send the documents by registered post with acknowledgement of receipt to the official address and attach the post office receipt and the returned card to the affidavit.

Where a Thai court cannot serve in the normal way, it may order the papers posted at the address or served by another method it fixes, which takes effect only after fifteen days or a longer period (section 79). A private service has no court order behind it, so we cannot post papers with that legal effect. If your court needs substituted service, ask it for an order that names the method, and we will carry it out exactly as ordered.

The affidavit of service

A Thai court officer files a receipt signed by the recipient, or a report stating the officer’s name, the person who received the papers, the method, and the day, month, year and time of service (section 80). Our affidavit contains the same particulars, signed by the Thai lawyer who served the papers, with photographs of the address and of the documents handed over where the recipient allows it.

If your court needs the affidavit sworn before a notary, or legalised for use abroad, we arrange it through our notarial services and document legalisation desk, at the published per-document fees.

What the foreign firm must send

• The documents to serve, as one PDF set, and the number of copies the recipient must receive
• The recipient’s full name, and for a Thai national the Thai spelling and ID number if you have it
• Every address you know: home, work, registered office, and any old address
• A photograph of the recipient if you have one, so the lawyer can identify the right person
• Your court’s rules or instructions on proof of service, and any deadline
• A Thai translation of the summons or claim if your court requires one. We can arrange a certified translation on quote.

Timing

Timing depends on where the recipient lives and how many attempts are needed. A Bangkok address is usually faster than a rural one. We give you the expected date in the written quote and report to you after each attempt, so you can plan around your court’s deadline.

Private service and service through official channels

There are two ways to serve foreign papers in Thailand. In private service, a Thai lawyer delivers the papers and swears to it, as described on this page. It is fast, you control the timing, and you receive a detailed affidavit. Whether it counts as valid service depends on the rules of the court that issued the papers, so check them before you instruct us.

In service through official channels, your court asks the Thai authorities to serve the papers, usually through diplomatic channels. You then receive proof of service from a Thai official, but the process is slow and you do not control the timing. Some courts and some types of claim require this route. If yours does, private service will not replace it.

Service is only the start. If you later need to enforce a foreign judgment against the same person in Thailand, read our guide to enforcing foreign judgments and arbitral awards in Thailand before you act.

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Related: Enforcing foreign judgments, Notarial services, Foreigners in Thai courts.

Frequently asked questions