Repatriating money from India as an NRI: the full route, from source of funds to the remittance

Short answer: getting money out of India runs through five gates, always in the same order. What the money is decides which account it sits in. The account decides the FEMA route: NRE and FCNR(B) balances are freely repatriable, current income such as rent and dividends can be remitted after tax without a cap, and almost everything else leaves from an NRO account within USD 1 million per financial year. Tax has to be settled before the bank will move it, which is where Form 145 (formerly 15CA) and, only sometimes, a CA's Form 146 (formerly 15CB) come in.

Most delays are not caused by the rules. They are caused by approaching the bank with the last gate before the first four are settled.

The five gates

A few terms, for readers outside India. The Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (FEMA) governs money crossing India's border; the RBI writes the detailed rules as Master Directions. Your authorised dealer (AD) bank is the bank licensed to deal in foreign exchange that actually sends the money. TDS is tax deducted at source, withheld by whoever pays you.

Gate 1: what the money actually is

Banks and the RBI do not treat "money in India" as one thing. Each source has its own route out.

Two points from that table catch people most often.

How the asset was paid for matters more than when it was sold. A flat bought in 2012 with money wired from Dubai is a different repatriation from an identical flat bought with a salary earned in Bengaluru, even though the tax on the two sales may be the same.

Mixed money is the norm. An NRO account that has received rent, a matured deposit and part of a sale price holds three kinds of money with three histories. The bank will ask which is which, and the answer needs statements behind it.

Gate 2: which account holds it

India gives non-residents three kinds of account, and the difference is exactly the difference between "repatriable" and "not freely repatriable".

• NRE (Non-Resident External) is a rupee account funded from abroad. Balances are freely repatriable.
• FCNR(B) (Foreign Currency Non-Resident (Bank)) is a foreign-currency deposit. Also freely repatriable.
• NRO (Non-Resident Ordinary) holds money that arose in India: rent, pension, sale proceeds, inherited balances. Its balances leave only as current income or within the USD 1 million facility.

Under the RBI's Master Direction on Deposits and Accounts, current income such as rent, dividend, pension and interest can be credited to an NRE account where the bank is satisfied that it is current income and that tax on it has been deducted, paid or provided for. The tax treatment of each account, including why NRE interest is treated differently from NRO interest, is in NRE, NRO and FCNR accounts: what is taxed.

Gate 3: the USD 1 million limit

The RBI's Master Direction on Remittance of Assets lets an NRI or a person of Indian origin (a category that covers most Overseas Citizen of India cardholders) remit up to USD 1 million per financial year, April to March, out of NRO balances, sale proceeds of assets and assets acquired by inheritance or legacy. The direction expressly includes transfers to your own NRE account within that amount.

Three features decide how it works in practice:

• It is per person, not per account.
• Where it is used in instalments, all instalments must go through the same AD bank.
• Above USD 1 million in a financial year, prior approval of the RBI is required.

What counts, what sits outside, and how to plan a large sum across two financial years is set out in the USD 1 million NRO repatriation limit.

Gate 4: the tax has to be settled first

The Master Direction is explicit that remittances are subject to payment of applicable taxes in India, and that the bank must comply with the tax law. The bank does not decide your tax. It needs to be shown that it has been dealt with.

Tax is settled in one of two ways.

At source. Most Indian payments to a non-resident suffer TDS: the tenant on rent, the bank on NRO interest, the buyer on a property sale. Withholding on payments to non-residents sat in Section 195 of the Income-tax Act 1961 and, for tax year 2026-27 onwards, sits in the non-resident table at Section 393(2) of the Income-tax Act 2025. Where TDS has been deducted, the certificate is the evidence.

By computation. A property sale is the case where TDS rarely equals the tax. The buyer deducts on the whole sale price, not on your gain. A lower-deduction certificate, applied for before the sale under Section 197 of the 1961 Act (now Section 395(1) of the 2025 Act, applied for in Form 128, which replaced Form 13), brings the deduction into line with the real liability. The mechanics are in TDS on property sale by an NRI.

Where the money is already tax-paid, such as savings from income on which TDS was deducted, or an inheritance, the remittance is often not chargeable to tax at all. That matters at the next gate.

Gate 5: Forms 145 and 146

From 1 April 2026, Form 15CA is Form 145 and Form 15CB is Form 146. Form 145 is your declaration, filed online before the remittance. Form 146 is a chartered accountant's certificate on the nature of the payment and its taxability.

A certificate is required only for Part C. A good share of repatriations, the tax-paid NRO balance and the inheritance among them, belong in Part D. Which part applies, and why banks ask for a certificate anyway, is set out in Form 15CA/15CB is now 145/146.

What the AD bank will ask for

Expect some version of this file, whatever the source:

• The bank's outward remittance application, and many banks still use Form A2 for it.
• Form 145 acknowledgement, and Form 146 where Part C applies.
• For an NRO remittance, the undertaking the Master Direction requires: that the money arises from your legitimate receivables in India, and not from borrowing or from a transfer out of someone else's NRO account.
• Evidence of the source: sale deed, will and probate, deposit maturity advice, rent agreement, contract notes.
• Evidence of tax: TDS certificates, Form 26AS or the Annual Information Statement (AIS), your Indian return where one was filed.
• KYC and PAN, the Indian Permanent Account Number.

Where the property was bought with foreign exchange, add the proof: the inward remittance certificate or NRE statements showing the payment. That is the document that takes the sale out of the USD 1 million limit, and it is the one most often lost.

Where the time actually goes

The transfer itself is the fast part. The time sits upstream, and it is predictable.

The order of work

1. Identify each source of the money, and put an amount against each.
2. Trace each to its account, and for property, to how it was paid for.
3. Place each on its FEMA route: freely repatriable, current income, or within USD 1 million.
4. Settle the tax: collect TDS certificates, compute gains, obtain a lower-deduction certificate before any sale.
5. Choose the Form 145 part, and obtain Form 146 only where Part C applies.
6. Assemble the bank's file and remit, through one AD bank for all instalments.

The inheritance case has its own documents and its own traps, covered in repatriating an inheritance from India. The property case has the longest paper trail, set out in repatriating property sale proceeds.

The document checklist

The checklist below lists every document by source of funds: property sale, inheritance, NRO balances and deposits, rent and current income, and shares and mutual funds. For each one it says why the bank or CA needs it and who issues it, with a column to mark what you already hold. It also has the order of work and a running total against the USD 1 million limit. Work through it before you approach the bank. Whatever is still missing at the end is what will hold up the remittance.

This note sets out the general route as at 23 September 2026, drawn from the RBI's Master Directions on Remittance of Assets, Deposits and Accounts, and Acquisition or Transfer of Immovable Property, and from the Income-tax Act 2025 and Income-tax Rules 2026 as mapped by the CBDT. It is not advice on any particular remittance. Whether the money is repatriable, how much tax is due and which part of Form 145 applies all depend on the documents, and the bank's own requirements vary. Confirm the position against the current Master Direction and with your AD bank before you remit.