Family Member Dies In New Zealand

[Richard-BKK]

Dear people,

One of my friends (Thai national), his mother (NZ citizen) who lived in New Zealand, was killed.

My friend was informed by the (Thai) city administration, where he was born, that they had received a request for relatives. They had not much more information; they did not even bother to tell who my friend has to contact. We presume the NZ embassy…

As this is also something new for me, and, there is likely property as in a house and car, etc… She worked for a computer company.

Please people if anybody has tips, advice anything at all what could be helpful… I would be very thankful

"As she was working, are there think like social insurances that she has rights on for funeral costs. Also as my friend is basically her only living relative, how does things work with everything she leaves behind?"

[ubonjoe]

Since the news came from a Thai goverment office it could of come from the Thai embassy there. That might be a good place to start. Link to embassy website that has contact info: http://www.thaiembassynz.org.nz/

After that then the NZ embassy in Bangkok.

[Richard-BKK]

NZ National/Citizen (she is not a Thai citizen). Tomorrow we going to try the NZ embassy in Bangkok.

Edited May 21, 2009 by Richard-BKK

[ubonjoe]

Where does his Thai nationality come from? His father or mother? I assumed she was Thai with NZ citizenship.

[Richard-BKK]

Dear Ubonjoe,

Your assumptions are wrong, we talking about a Thai national with a New Zealand (NZ national) mother.

[Boo]

Ubonjoes assumption & questions are reasonable in order to provide the correct information for you. It is very odd for mother & son to hold completely different nationalities or for at least one of them not to be a dual nationality holder. I believe that is all that UbonJoe is trying to establish in order to advise the correct course of action.

But anyway, the NZ embassy will not have information on NZ citizens who pass away in NZ, they only really deal with deaths of NZ citizens in Thailand, so I would suggest going back to the thai office that first alerted him & asking who contacted them & go from there. There must have been some form of official documentation for them to have been able to find him.

[samran]

Dear Ubonjoe,

Your assumptions are wrong, we talking about a Thai national with a New Zealand (NZ national) mother.

Trying to be helpful here:

That he has a NZ mother grants him certain rights which he may not know of, including citizenship via decent. It will depend on where his mum was born (was she a natural born NZ'er?) and whether or not he was born before 1978. Odds are, he stands a good chance of aquiring NZ citizenship and heading down on a NZ passport if he needs to sort out stuff there.

Though both my kids have NZ citizenship (cause I'm married to one!) I'm not an expert on NZ citizenship laws, but the link below is a start:

http://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/wpg_...ns?OpenDocument

http://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/wpg_...nt?OpenDocument

[Richard-BKK]

He Samran,

My friend is aware that he can get NZ citizenship, does he needs to obtain the NZ citizenship to claim his mothers remains and arrange a funeral?

[samran]

He Samran,

My friend is aware that he can get NZ citizenship, does he needs to obtain the NZ citizenship to claim his mothers remains and arrange a funeral?

not sure, but I highly doubt it. But I'd assume that he planning to go down make all those arrangements? Travelling on a NZ passport would be the easist way.....