Roughly a tenth of the investors we serve live outside India, across more than ten countries. In almost every case the delay in getting them invested has nothing to do with choosing a fund. It is paperwork — and it is nearly always the same five documents.
Get these right at the outset and NRI investing becomes as ordinary as resident investing. Get one wrong and you will spend three months in correspondence with a registrar.
1. Your passport — both pages that matter
Registrars want the photo page and the page carrying your address. People routinely send only the first. If your passport shows an Indian address while your KYC declares an overseas one, expect a query, so send the overseas address proof alongside it.
Where attestation is required, it must come from an acceptable authority: the Indian Embassy or Consulate, a notary public, a court magistrate, or an authorised official of an overseas branch of a scheduled commercial bank registered in India. A photocopy signed by you is not attestation.
2. Proof of NRI status
A valid visa, residence permit, work permit, or a PIO or OCI card. This establishes that you are entitled to invest on the NRI route at all, and it must be current — an expired visa will hold up the application even where the passport is fine.
3. Overseas address proof
A utility bill, a bank statement, a lease, or a letter from your employer showing the foreign address. Two details cause most rejections: the document being more than three months old, and the name on it not matching the name on the passport exactly. If you go by a shortened name locally, use the document that carries your full legal name.
4. NRE or NRO account proof
This is the one that determines what you can do with the money later, so it is worth being precise about the distinction:
| NRE account | NRO account | |
|---|---|---|
| Funded by | Overseas earnings | Income earned in India |
| Repatriation | Freely repatriable | Up to USD 1 million per financial year, subject to conditions |
| Typical use | Fresh investments from abroad | Rent, dividends, sale proceeds of Indian assets |
Invest from an NRE account and the proceeds can generally be sent back without a limit. Invest from an NRO account and repatriation is capped and requires a chartered accountant's certification in Form 15CA/CB. Neither is wrong; they simply serve different purposes. Decide before you invest, not after, because the redemption follows the source account.
The account you invest from decides how easily the money comes back. That decision is made once, at the start, and is difficult to undo.
5. FATCA and CRS declaration
Every investor declares their country of tax residence and the corresponding taxpayer identification number — SSN for the United States, NI number for the United Kingdom, and so forth. It is a short form, and it is the one most often filled in carelessly.
A specific warning for the US and Canada. Many Indian AMCs restrict or refuse investments from residents of these two countries because of FATCA compliance obligations. Some accept them only with additional declarations, or only for transactions submitted physically. This is not universal — a number of fund houses do accept US and Canada residents — but it must be checked before you select a scheme rather than after.
What else is worth knowing
- TDS applies to NRI redemptions at source, at rates that differ by scheme type and holding period. Where India has a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement with your country of residence, a tax residency certificate may allow a lower rate.
- Nominate at the outset. Cross-border transmission without a nomination is considerably harder than domestic transmission, and it falls to your family at the worst possible time.
- Keep the mandate current. If you return to India permanently, the status must be changed to resident and the NRE account redesignated. Investments left under a stale status create problems years later.
Start here
Our KYC page lists exactly what is needed, including the additional NRI items, and lets you send everything across securely in one go. Most NRI cases we handle are complete within two to three weeks, and video reviews are arranged around your time zone rather than ours.
If you are unsure whether your particular country and fund house combination works, ask us first. It takes us a day to confirm and saves you a month.
