Indians outside India

Selling property in India and sending the money abroad

What a non-resident Indian or an overseas citizen of India may buy is set out under the law above. On a sale to a person resident in India in the tax year that began on 1 April 2026, the buyer’s duty to withhold tax sits in section 393(2) of the Income-tax Act, 2025, and a non-resident’s long-term gain on a flat is taxed at 12.5 per cent under section 197. The money then leaves India through an authorised dealer bank by one of two routes in the Reserve Bank’s directions, each with its own cap and conditions.

• Note: an NRI or OCI cardholder selling a flat and sending the money abroad
• The Foreign Exchange Management (Non-debt Instruments) Rules, 2019
• The Income-tax Act, 2025

Inheriting property and proving a will

Under section 6(5) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and rule 24(c) of the Non-debt Instruments Rules, a non-resident Indian or an overseas citizen of India may inherit any immovable property in India, agricultural land included.

Whether the heir also needs probate or a succession certificate turns on the asset and, for a will, on section 213 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, which an Act assented to on 20 December 2025 omitted.

• Note: inheriting property in India from abroad
• The Indian Succession Act, 1925
• The Hindu Succession Act, 1956

Whether you are resident in India for tax

Under section 6 of the Income-tax Act, 2025, in force from 1 April 2026, an Indian citizen living abroad is resident in India for a tax year on 182 days or more in India, or on 60 days plus 365 days in the four years before. A citizen on a visit from abroad is outside the 60-day test unless Indian income other than foreign-source income exceeds INR 15 lakh, when the test runs at 120 days.

A citizen with such income above INR 15 lakh who is liable to tax in no other country is deemed resident, but only as a person not ordinarily resident.

• Note: when an Indian citizen living abroad is resident in India for tax
• The Income-tax Act, 2025

Signing a power of attorney or a document abroad

A power of attorney signed abroad reaches Indian authorities by one of two routes: signature before an Indian consular officer, or signature before a foreign notary followed by an apostille under the Hague Convention of 1961. Whether the Convention applies turns on the country where the document is signed, and each country page below states it.

For property in Karnataka the instrument is stamped within three months of first reaching the State, under section 18 of the Karnataka Stamp Act, 1957. A general power of attorney does not itself sell a flat: the Supreme Court has held that a transfer needs a registered deed of conveyance, which the attorney can sign for the owner.

• Note: a power of attorney signed abroad to sell a flat in Bengaluru
• The Registration Act, 1908

What an OCI card allows

An Overseas Citizen of India cardholder is a foreign national. Notification S.O. 1050(E) of 4 March 2021, made under section 7B of the Citizenship Act, 1955, gives the cardholder a lifelong multiple-entry visa, parity with a non-resident Indian on buying and selling immovable property other than agricultural land, a farm house or plantation property, and the rights of a foreigner in every other economic, financial and educational field.

Four heads of activity need special permission or a special permit, and the registration can be cancelled under section 7D.

• Note: what an OCI cardholder may and may not do in India
• The Citizenship Act, 1955
• Notification S.O. 1050(E): rights of OCI cardholders

NRE and NRO accounts, and sending money out of India

A Non-Resident (Ordinary) Rupee account, the NRO account, is a rupee account held by a non-resident for money earned or received in India. Under paragraph 3.2 of the Reserve Bank’s Master Direction on remittance of assets, an authorised dealer bank may allow a non-resident Indian or a person of Indian origin, a term that includes an OCI cardholder, to remit up to USD 1 million a financial year out of NRO balances or the sale proceeds of assets. Above that, the Reserve Bank’s prior approval is needed.

A separate route repatriates the sale proceeds of property bought with foreign exchange received through banking channels or out of a Non-Resident (External) account, the NRE account, or an FCNR(B) account, and for residential property it is limited to two properties.

• Note: the two exit routes for sale proceeds
• Note: how inherited money reaches an heir abroad
• The Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999

Marriage, divorce and children across borders

Divorce, maintenance and custody are governed by the personal law statutes, among them the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955, and by the Special Marriage Act, 1954 and the Guardians and Wards Act, 1890, which places the welfare of the child as the paramount consideration. A judgment of a foreign court is conclusive in India only within section 13 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.

• Note: matrimonial and child custody law in India
• The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955
• The Guardians and Wards Act, 1890
• The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908

Where Indians abroad live

The Ministry of External Affairs counted 17,760,528 non-resident Indians in January 2026. Each country page below sets out the figures for that country, how a document signed there is accepted in India and the time difference.

1. United Arab Emirates4,326,248
2. Saudi Arabia2,747,551
3. United States2,311,484
4. Canada1,388,300
5. Kuwait1,036,389
6. Qatar830,491
7. Oman676,781
8. Singapore450,000
9. United Kingdom369,000
10. Germany300,000
11. Australia125,903

Non-resident Indians, from Ministry of External Affairs: Population of Overseas Indians, January 2026.