Hamiltonian flows on unbounded surfaces are characterized topologically. In fact, under a regularity of singular points, a flow with an orientable surface with finite genus and finite ends is Hamiltonian if and only if it is a flow without limit circuits or non-closed recurrent points such that the extended orbit space is a finite directed graph without directed cycles. Furthermore, the directed surface graph which is the finite union of centers, multi-saddles, and virtually border separatrices of such a Hamiltonian flow is a topological complete invariant. On the other hand, under finite volume assumption, Hamiltonian flows on unbounded surfaces can be embedded into those on compact surfaces.