Short answer: an NRI or person of Indian origin may remit up to USD 1 million per financial year (1 April to 31 March) out of NRO balances, sale proceeds of assets and inherited assets. The limit is per person, all instalments must go through one bank, and a transfer from your own NRO account to your own NRE account counts against it. NRE and FCNR(B) balances, current income, and property bought with foreign exchange (up to what was paid) sit outside it. Above the limit, prior RBI approval is required.
The number is simple. What goes into it is where people get it wrong, usually in the direction of thinking they have less room than they do.
The source is the Reserve Bank of India's Master Direction on Remittance of Assets (Master Direction No. 13/2015-16), last updated on 29 June 2026, which sits on the Foreign Exchange Management (Remittance of Assets) Regulations, 2016. Paragraph 3.2 lets an authorised dealer (AD) bank, which is the bank licensed to deal in foreign exchange, allow NRIs and persons of Indian origin, on documentary evidence, to remit up to USD 1 million per financial year:
- out of balances in their NRO (Non-Resident Ordinary) accounts, sale proceeds of assets, and assets acquired in India by inheritance or legacy;
- in respect of assets acquired under a deed of settlement made by a parent or a relative, where the settlement takes effect on the settler's death.
A settlement made during the owner's lifetime without retaining a life interest is treated as a gift, and the proceeds follow the ordinary NRO rules.
Foreign nationals who are not of Indian origin have a parallel USD 1 million facility under paragraph 3.1, for specific cases: balances on retirement from employment in India, inherited assets, assets inherited by a non-resident widow or widower from an Indian spouse, and a foreign student's balances at the end of studies.
| Counts towards USD 1 million | Why |
|---|
| Remittance abroad of NRO balances that are not current income | The core of the facility |
| Transfer from your NRO account to your own NRE account | Expressly included; NRE money is freely repatriable afterwards |
| Sale proceeds of property bought from rupee funds | Sale proceeds of assets |
| Sale proceeds of property you owned before becoming non-resident | Same |
| Sale proceeds of property received as a gift | Credited to NRO; same route |
| The capital gain on property bought with foreign exchange, above the original cost | Only the foreign-exchange cost escapes the limit |
| Inherited money, and sale proceeds of inherited property | Assets acquired by inheritance or legacy |
| Sale proceeds of shares and mutual funds held on a non-repatriation basis | Sale proceeds of assets |
| Maturity proceeds of a PPF account continued after becoming non-resident | Capital, credited to NRO |
| Outside the limit | The basis |
|---|
| NRE and FCNR(B) balances | Freely repatriable under the Deposits Master Direction |
| Current income: rent, dividends, interest, pension | Permitted as a separate NRO debit for remittance of current income; can also be credited to NRE where tax is dealt with |
| Sale proceeds of property bought through inward remittance or from NRE or FCNR(B), up to the amount paid | Immovable Property Master Direction, for up to two residential properties |
| Sale proceeds of shares and mutual funds bought on a repatriation basis | Repatriable under the investment rules |
The current-income point is the one worth holding on to. A landlord remitting rent every quarter is not using up the million. Neither is someone whose NRO interest is sent out each year. What uses it up is capital.
The line is sometimes blurred in practice. Rent left to pile up in an NRO account for eight years is, by then, a balance, and a bank may ask why it was not remitted as it arose. Remitting current income as current income, and keeping the statements that show it, avoids an argument about its character later.
Per person. The facility is given to the NRI or person of Indian origin, not to an account. Three NRO accounts do not produce three limits. Where property or an estate is shared, each co-owner or heir can use their own limit for the money that is theirs, and the bank will want to see the split.
Per financial year. The limit resets on 1 April. There is no carry-forward: a year in which you remitted nothing does not give you two million the next year.
Through one bank. Where the remittance is made in more than one instalment, the Master Direction requires all instalments to go through the same AD bank. That is how the running total is policed. Splitting remittances across banks does not create room; it creates a gap in the record that you will be asked to explain.
Measured in dollars. The ceiling is a US dollar figure. How many rupees it covers depends on the exchange rate when you remit, so a rupee plan made in January may not hold in March.
For a remittance out of NRO balances, the bank must obtain an undertaking from you that the money arises from your legitimate receivables in India, and not from borrowing from another person or a transfer from another person's NRO account, and that you are liable to penal action under FEMA if it is found otherwise.
That wording is aimed at a specific abuse: a resident relative passing money through an NRO account to take it abroad outside the Liberalised Remittance Scheme. A rupee gift from a resident relative can legitimately be credited to your NRO account, within the Liberalised Remittance Scheme limits the resident is subject to, but that is not the same as the account being used as a pipe. If credits to the account come from family, expect questions, and keep the documents.
Property. How the property was paid for decides how much of the sale uses the limit. Paid through inward remittance or from NRE or FCNR(B): the original foreign-exchange cost goes out outside the limit, for up to two residential properties, and only the gain draws on it. Paid in rupees, gifted, inherited, or owned before you left India: all of it is within the limit. The paper trail is in repatriating property sale proceeds.
Inheritance. Inherited money and the sale proceeds of inherited property are within the limit, on documentary evidence of the inheritance. For a large estate, the limit is usually the constraint that decides the timetable, which is set out in repatriating an inheritance.
Paragraph 4.1 of the Master Direction requires prior approval of the Reserve Bank where the remittance exceeds USD 1,000,000 in a financial year, whether out of NRO balances, sale proceeds or inherited assets, and separately wherever hardship would be caused if the remittance were not made. Anything outside the direction's categories also needs approval.
Applications for RBI regulatory approvals have been made online through its PRAVAAH portal since 1 May 2025. An application of this kind needs the same evidence the bank would have wanted, plus a reason for the amount and the timing.
The alternative, in most cases, is simply the calendar:
| Plan | Remitted by 31 March | Remitted from 1 April | Approval needed? |
|---|
| All at once in February | USD 1.6 million | Nil | Yes |
| Split across the year-end | USD 1.0 million | USD 0.6 million | No |
If a sale completes in January, the proceeds can go up to the limit before 31 March and the rest after 1 April. The cost is a few weeks. The alternative is an approval process with no fixed timeline.
The limit is a FEMA rule. It sits alongside the tax rules and does not replace them. The Master Direction says in terms that remittances are subject to payment of applicable taxes, and the bank will not release the money until the tax position is documented, which means Form 145 and, where the remittance is taxable and above ₹5 lakh, a chartered accountant's Form 146. Which part applies is in Form 15CA/15CB is now 145/146, and the whole sequence is in repatriating money from India: the full route.
This note reflects the RBI Master Direction on Remittance of Assets as updated to 29 June 2026, the Master Direction on Deposits and Accounts as updated to 2 September 2026, and the Master Direction on Acquisition or Transfer of Immovable Property. It is a general guide to the limit, not advice on any particular remittance. What counts against the limit turns on the history of the money, which the bank will judge from the documents, so confirm the position with your AD bank and against the current directions before you remit.