FEMA Account Selector

Choose the account type that matches your status and purpose.

Your current statusPrimary purpose

NRE vs NRO: NRE: foreign earnings, tax-free interest, fully repatriable. NRO: India earnings, taxable interest, limited repatriation. Most NRIs need BOTH.

NRE — Non-Resident External Account

Currency: INR (but funded from foreign currency — bank converts)

Repatriability: true

Interest taxable: false

Notes: Both principal and interest freely repatriable. Interest is exempt from Indian income tax (s.10(4)(ii)). Joint account possible with another NRI. Cannot be jointly held with resident Indian (as primary holder).

Best for: Parking foreign earnings, remittances to India, holding savings that may need to go back abroad. Currency risk: account is in INR; exchange risk on repatriation.

VERIFY: Whether NRE account holder who returns to India and becomes Resident must re-designate the account — yes, within reasonable time, the NRE account should be re-designated to RFC or regular resident account

VERIFY: Whether a resident Indian can be a joint account holder in a NRE account as second holder — RBI Master Direction says NRE can be jointly held only with another NRI. As a Resident Indian, joint holding of NRE is NOT permitted (only as nominee or on former-or-survivor basis in exceptional cases). Confirm current RBI rules.