Accounts opened by Foreign Nationals and foreign Tourists.

Foreign tourists:

 Foreign tourists during their short visits to India can open a Non-resident (ordinary) Rupee
account (NRO account- Current/Savings) with any AD bank dealing in foreign exchange. Such
accounts can be opened up to a maximum period of 6 months. Apart from KYC compliance,
passport and other valid documents are required to open such accounts.
 Funds remitted from outside India through banking channel or those obtained by sale of forex
brought by tourists to India can be credited to the NRO account. Tourists can freely make local
payments through the NRO account. However payments to residents exceeding Rs.50,000 shall
be made only by cheque/Pay order/draft.
 ADs are allowed to convert the balance in the account for payment to the account holder at the
time of departure from India in foreign currency, subject to the condition that the account has
been maintained for a period not exceeding 6 months and the account has not been credited
with any local funds, other than interest accrued thereon.
 Permission from RBI is necessary to repatriate proceeds of an account that has been maintained
for more than 6 months.

Foreign nationals resident in India:

 Foreign nationals employed in India holding valid visas can open and maintain a resident Rupee
account in India.
 In order to facilitate such foreign nationals to collect their pending dues in India, AD banks can
permit foreign nationals to re-designate their resident account maintained in India as NRO
account on leaving the country after their employment, to enable them to receive their pending
bonafide dues, subject to conditions.
 AD banks have to ensure that the funds to be repatriated outside India were either received
from abroad or they are repatriable in nature or permissible in terms of FEMA Notification.

Re-conversion of unspent Indian Currency:(Ref: Federal Digest 11/ii/2014)

 Exchange Bureaus may reconvert unspent Indian currency up to 10,000 in the possession of
non-residents (including NRIs) into Foreign CurrencyNotes, if for bona fide reasons the person is
unable to produce Encashment Certificate (ECF), after ensuring that the travel / departure is
scheduled to take place in the next 7 days.
 Branches/Exchange Bureaus my reconvert unspent Indian currency up to 50,000 in the
possession of foreign tourists (not NRIs) into FC notes against original ATM receipts (to be
verified with original debit/credit card) & on production of valid passport and visa with
confirmed ticket for departure within the next 7 days.
 Branches/Exchange Bureaus may reconvert unspent Indian currency (no specific limit is
prescribed) held by non- residents at the time of departure from India, provided valid ECF is
produced. It may be noted that ECF is valid for 3 months only from the date of issue for
reconversion of unspent Indian currency.

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[Compiled by Sri. A Madhavan. Ref: RBI circulars]