Expats always have their heart and mind in two places. A country they have their roots in, the place of birth and the country they move to, a place that becomes a home away from home. If you are relocating to another country, you have too many things on your plate. If you have already made the big move, one thing that expats always can use help on is NRI banking. To make money management, back home, an easy task here’s what you need to know.: 

NRI’s have access to 3 different types of accounts in India. As per Income tax act, following rules are applicable to open and maintain a NRI bank account. 
A) You need to spend at least 245 days in a city that does not fall in or on Indian borders
B) In four consecutive years; your stay in India should not exceed more than 365 days. 
C) A new rule brought in by Government to qualify, as a NRI your stay in India should be less than 4 years in a decade. The change to 4 years from 2 years was recently announced. 

In case of an individual, employed overseas and staying for the necessary duration mandated by the Indian government – the status non-objectively changes to NRI. 

The types of NRI account you need to know: 

1) Non Resident Ordinary Account 

Your favorite childhood memory is visiting your grandfather’s house during vacation. Life has moved on, so have you to another location. But your heart fondly holds that house in high regards. You do not wish to sell it, instead, you opt to rent it. How do you manage the income from rent? To facilitate transactions of this nature, you can open a non-resident ordinary account (NRO) account. With this type of account, you can continue to transact in Indian denomination without having to go through the currency conversion step. 

2) Foreign Currency Non-Resident Account 

With Foreign Currency Non-Resident Account you can deposit money in the same denomination as your current country of residence. At present, RBI allows deposit in US Dollars (USD), British pounds (GBP), Euros (EUR), Japanese Yen (JPY), Canadian Dollars (CAD), Australian Dollars (AUD), Singapore Dollars (SGD), Hong Kong Dollars (HKD) and Swiss Francs (CHF). Choosing any of RBI facilitated currency, you can easily and effortlessly deposit money in dollars or francs and maintain a fixed deposit account in India.  

3) Non-Residential External Account

The Non-Residential External account is an ideal choice if you wish to earn in dollars or currency of your current residence and deposit in Indian rupees. This account is greatly beneficial if any of your dependents are residing in India and you wish to remit money to them periodically. 

Checklist to choose an account 

Once you have your purpose in place, comparing and finalizing the account best suited for you will be as easy as 1-2-3. Here’s a checklist to help you make the choice.

1) Define your purpose

2) Depositing and Withdrawal currency

3) Understand Taxability associated with each account 

4) Ancillary benefits such as joint account 

5) Understand the remitting process- exchange rate effect, repatriation of balances. 

6) Additional customization by financial institutions