FEMA Rules for NRI — Guided. Compliant. Confident.

The Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 draws a fundamental distinction between persons resident in India and persons resident outside India. Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) fall in the latter category and are subject to a specific set of permissions, restrictions, and reporting requirements for every financial transaction involving India — from maintaining bank accounts to buying property, from investing in Indian companies to repatriating funds abroad.

The FEMA framework for NRIs is both extensive and nuanced. What is permitted under the automatic route, what requires prior RBI approval, how funds can be repatriated, which accounts must be used, and what documentation is required — these are not always intuitive, and the consequences of getting it wrong can be significant: penalties under FEMA can be up to three times the amount involved, and violations can only be regularised through compounding with the RBI.

We advise NRIs on the full spectrum of FEMA-related matters: structuring bank account operations correctly across NRE, NRO, and FCNR accounts; ensuring property purchase and sale transactions are FEMA-compliant; guiding investments in Indian equities, mutual funds, and unlisted companies; advising on repatriation of funds; and representing NRIs in compounding proceedings for past violations.