How to Fill Out the NRI Declaration Form: FATCA, NRE/NRO, and DTAA

The NRI declaration form is the document you file with your Indian bank to formally notify it that you have become a Non-Resident Indian under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). Once the bank has it, the bank redesignates your resident account as a Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) account, updates your KYC records, and applies the correct tax withholding on your Indian income. There is no single standardized form: each bank publishes its own version, but the information you provide and the documents you attach are close to identical across institutions.¹ File it promptly. Keeping a resident savings account open after you qualify as an NRI is a FEMA contravention, and the penalty can run up to three times the balance in the non-compliant account.²

When You Need to File the Form

Under FEMA, you become a person resident outside India the moment you leave for employment, business, or any purpose that suggests you will be abroad for an uncertain period.³ Intent matters here, not day count. Someone who flies out on a two-year work contract is an NRI under FEMA on day one.

The declaration is what banks require in these situations:

Converting an existing resident savings or current account to an NRO account. This is the most common trigger, and it usually goes in with a separate conversion application.
Opening a new NRE account for foreign earnings or a new NRO account for Indian-sourced income.
Investing in Indian securities through the Reserve Bank of India’s Portfolio Investment Scheme, which requires a designated NRI branch and a status declaration.⁴
Refreshing your KYC after a passport renewal, visa change, or a bank-initiated Re-KYC cycle.

FEMA doesn’t set a calendar deadline, but the RBI’s position is that a resident account “should be designated as NRO account” once you become a person resident outside India.¹ Banks treat that as an immediate obligation, and every transaction that runs through a non-compliant account can be treated as a separate contravention.

Documents to Gather Before You Start

An incomplete submission is the most common reason declarations stall. Pull everything together before you open the form.

A valid passport. You will need the number, place of issue, and expiration date, plus a self-attested photocopy of the bio page and the page with your visa stamp.⁵
Proof of NRI status: a valid work visa, employment permit, residence permit, or OCI card. This is what evidences that you are abroad for a qualifying purpose under FEMA.
Foreign address proof, such as a utility bill, bank statement, or government-issued document, typically dated within the last three months.
Your PAN card. Without a PAN, banks apply a higher TDS rate of 20% on payments.⁶
Recent passport-sized photographs, especially for new account openings.
A FATCA/CRS self-certification form, which most banks bundle with the declaration or attach separately. Have your foreign Tax Identification Number ready.

If any of your documents are in a language other than English or Hindi, some banks require a separate declaration confirming the document’s contents. HDFC Bank, for example, publishes a specific declaration form for non-English documents.⁷

How to Fill Out the Form, Section by Section

Bank forms vary in layout, but the sections you complete are the same. Here is what each one asks for and where people slip up.

Personal Information and Account Details

Enter your full name exactly as it appears on your passport. A minor mismatch will stall processing. List every account number you hold at that bank: savings, current, and fixed deposit. If you are converting an existing resident account, the declaration goes in together with the bank’s conversion application form.

Residency and Employment Details

This section captures where you live, what you do abroad, and how long you have been away. Provide your foreign residential address, your employer’s name and address (or business details if self-employed), and the date you left India.

The form also asks you to state the number of days you spent in India during the current financial year (April 1 through March 31) and often the preceding year. Count carefully. Under the Income Tax Act you are a resident if you spent 182 days or more in India during the financial year. A second test treats you as a resident if you spent 60 or more days in the year and 365 or more days across the preceding four years combined, though Indian citizens who leave for employment abroad get the stricter 182-day threshold on that second test.⁸ Your bank uses your day count to set the withholding rate on your interest income.⁹ Count both your departure and arrival dates as days spent in India.

Note that this day count governs tax withholding only. FEMA’s residency test, which decides whether the bank can accept your declaration in the first place, turns on intent and purpose rather than days.³

FATCA and CRS Self-Certification

Indian banks are required to collect information under both the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Common Reporting Standard (CRS). This section asks for your country of tax residence, your foreign TIN, and whether you are a U.S. person (citizen or Green Card holder). If you hold tax residency in more than one country, disclose all of them. Missing or incorrect FATCA/CRS information can result in the bank freezing your account until it is corrected.

Account Type: NRE or NRO

You will be asked which account type applies. When you convert an existing resident savings account, it becomes an NRO account, not an NRE. That is because the money in it was earned in India, and NRE accounts can only be funded by foreign currency remittances.¹ An NRO account holds Indian-sourced income (rent, dividends, pension) and its interest is taxed at roughly 30% plus cess, with repatriation capped at $1 million per calendar year. An NRE account holds foreign earnings, with tax-free interest and free repatriation.¹⁰ If you want both, you open the NRE separately and fund it by remittance from abroad.

Signature and Self-Certification

The final section is a signed declaration that everything you have stated is true. It carries legal weight: false statements can trigger penalties under FEMA and Indian tax law. Sign in the same style as your bank’s existing signature records. Some banks accept a scanned signature when you submit from abroad; others require an original ink signature on a mailed copy.

Where to Get the Form and How to Submit It

Each bank publishes its own version as a downloadable PDF:

State Bank of India offers a Re-KYC Self Declaration Form for NRIs through its NRI forms download page.¹¹
HDFC Bank publishes separate forms for resident-to-NRO conversion, Re-KYC updates, FATCA/CRS declarations, and PIO status declarations.⁷
ICICI Bank lists downloadable forms with instructions to courier completed packets to its NRI processing center in Mumbai.⁵

You have three submission routes:

Mail or courier. Print, sign, attach self-attested copies of your documents, and send the packet. ICICI Bank, for example, accepts submissions at ICICI Bank Ltd, RPC – NRI Cell, Autumn Estate, 5th Floor, “A” Wing, Near Mhada, Chandivali, Andheri (E), Mumbai – 400 072, India. Courier delivery typically takes around 7 working days from most countries, or 15 working days by regular post.⁵
Internet or mobile banking. Some banks let you upload scanned forms and documents through their NRI portal. Availability varies.
In person. If you are visiting India, walk into your home branch with the completed form and original documents.

What Happens After You Submit

The bank verifies the information against your existing records. At ICICI Bank, processing takes about two working days after receipt if the packet is complete.⁵ Other banks run to similar timelines, though incomplete documents or mismatched signatures push things out.

Once verification is done, the bank redesignates your account, updates your KYC record, and applies the appropriate withholding rate to your interest income. You should get confirmation by email or SMS. Log in afterward and confirm the account type has actually changed. Do not rely on the message alone.

Penalties for Not Filing

There is no separate fine for skipping the declaration. The exposure comes from continuing to operate a resident account after you have become an NRI, which contravenes FEMA’s rules on account classification. Under Section 13 of FEMA, the Adjudicating Authority can impose a penalty of up to three times the amount involved when that amount is quantifiable, or up to ₹2 lakh when it is not. A continuing contravention attracts an additional ₹5,000 per day from the first day of non-compliance.²

In practice, the amount involved is typically the balance in the non-compliant account, which is how the “three times the balance” figure arises. Banks can also freeze accounts they later find should have been converted, and transactions run through a resident account after the status change can be questioned separately.¹²

If You Want DTAA Benefits, Attach Two More Documents

If you are a tax resident of a country that has a Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement with India, you can reduce the withholding tax on your Indian income. India has DTAAs with the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and many others. To claim the reduced rate you need to submit two documents to the bank alongside (or after) your declaration:

A Tax Residency Certificate from the tax authority in your country of residence. In the U.S., you file IRS Form 8802 to obtain Form 6166, which serves as the TRC. The IRS recommends applying at least 45 days before you need it, a user fee applies through Pay.gov, and Form 6166 is only for treaty benefits and VAT exemptions, not for claiming foreign tax credits.¹³¹⁴¹⁵
Form 10F, filed electronically with the Indian Income Tax Department, with additional details about your residency and treaty claim. The Department requires both the TRC and Form 10F before granting DTAA relief.¹⁶

Once the bank has both, it applies the treaty-reduced rate to your interest and other income instead of the standard withholding rate.

1
Reserve Bank of India. Accounts in India by Non-residents
2
India Code. Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999 – Section 13
3
India Code. The Foreign Exchange Management Act 1999
4
Ministry of External Affairs. Portfolio Investment Scheme for NRIs
5
ICICI Bank. Download NRI Account Forms and Documents
6
Kotak Mahindra Bank. Do NRIs Have a PAN Card
7
HDFC Bank. NRI Forms Center
8
Ministry of External Affairs. Guide Book for Overseas Indians on Taxation
9
Worldwide Tax Summaries. India – Individual – Residence
10
Federal Bank. Difference Between NRE Accounts and NRO Accounts
11
State Bank of India. Download Forms – NRI
12
ICICI Bank. Convert Your Resident Savings Account to an NRO Account
13
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8802, Application for U.S. Residency Certification
14
Internal Revenue Service. Form 8802 Application for United States Residency Certification
15
Internal Revenue Service. Electronic Payment of User Fees
16
Income Tax Department. Double Taxation Relief