A PAN is the one document you cannot work around. Without it, tax is deducted at a higher rate, the credit for tax already deducted does not reach you, and a property registration becomes difficult. Apply for it before you need it.
For bank accounts, KYC for a non-resident normally means a passport, visa or residence permit, proof of the overseas address and proof of the Indian address if you keep one — attested by an Indian mission abroad, a notary, a banker, or under the video-based process most Indian banks now run.
Aadhaar is not mandatory for an NRI, and no bank may insist on it as the only identity document. An NRI holding an Indian passport may obtain Aadhaar on arrival without waiting out any residence period, but nothing in the deposit or property rules requires it.
One more form arrives with all of this, and it asks a different question — not who you are, but which country you pay tax in.
FATCA and CRS reporting for NRIs
- Keep a scanned, apostilled set of your identity documents; you will use it repeatedly.
- Update your bank the moment your status changes — a resident account left open after you emigrate is a contravention.
- Nominate. In every account, every deposit, every folio.
Source: Reserve Bank of India, Master Direction on Know Your Customer and the FAQs on it dated 9 June 2025; PAN and its application forms sit under the income-tax rules, and which form applies turns on your citizenship, not on where you live. Aadhaar is issued under the Aadhaar Act, 2016 and is not available to every non-resident. Checked 20 September 2026.