Open almost any account in India and a second form comes with it, asking which country you are a tax resident of. That is FATCA and CRS. The bank is not being nosy — it is obliged to ask, and obliged to pass the answer on.
What the form is actually for
Your bank, fund house or insurer has to work out which country you are a tax resident of and report your account there. India does this with the United States under FATCA, and with a long list of other countries under the Common Reporting Standard.
At opening, the institution must "obtain a self-certification … that allows [it] to determine the account holder's residence or residences for tax purposes." If your answer names a country outside India, the form must also carry your taxpayer identification number for that country and your date of birth.
PAN, KYC and Aadhaar requirements for NRIs
What makes them ask again
The rules list the signs an institution must look for. An address outside India. Telephone numbers outside India and none in India. Standing instructions to send money to an account abroad. A power of attorney or signatory authority held by someone with an address abroad. A "hold mail" instruction or an "in-care-of" address.
Any one of them is enough. Several of them describe an ordinary NRI.
The trap: you opened the account as a resident
Moving abroad is a change of circumstances. Once the bank has reason to know your old declaration is "incorrect or unreliable" it must get a fresh one — and if it cannot, it must "treat the account as a reportable account" for each country the signs point to.
So silence is not neutral. Where the signs are there and no declaration follows, the account is reported as an undocumented account, which is a worse label than any honest answer.
Becoming an NRI: the first steps
Being reported is not being taxed
This is information exchange, not a charge. The report says what you hold in India; it does not decide what anyone may tax. What you owe, and where, is a separate question with its own answer.
Residential status under income tax and FEMA
- Your bank must ask where you are tax resident, at opening and again when things change.
- A foreign address, phone number or power of attorney is enough to make them ask.
- No answer does not mean no report — the account is reported as undocumented.
Source: Rules 114F to 114H and Form 61B of the Income-tax Rules, read on the Income-tax Department's own site (rule 114H, uploaded 13 December 2025) — the quotations above are from rule 114H. The Income-tax Act 2025 renumbers the 1961 Act throughout, so check the current numbering before citing it anywhere that matters. Checked 22 September 2026.