Tools · Tool 05
Repatriation headroom
for the financial year
Money in an NRE or FCNR(B) account goes out freely. Out of an NRO account there is a ceiling — USD 1 million a financial year — and the half of it most people get wrong is not the figure. It is which money the figure applies to.
Where is the money coming from?
Two of these three answers mean there is no ceiling to use up.
How much do you want to send?
The limit is in dollars, the money is usually in rupees. Put in whichever you have.
And how much has already gone out this year?
Only what has left an NRO account under this route since 1 April. NRE and FCNR(B) transfers do not count. Leave it blank if nothing has gone.
Arithmetic, not advice. It subtracts one figure from another and tells you which side of the ceiling you are on. It does not know whether your Indian tax is paid, or whether the property was bought in foreign exchange.
The ceiling is USD 1 million per financial year, April to March, on NRO balances together with your other eligible assets. An NRE balance is repatriable; an NRO balance is not, except for current income. Moving money from NRO to NRE sits inside the same limit, so it resets nothing.
Source: Reserve Bank of India, FAQs — Accounts in India by Non-residents, as on 16 January 2025, read with the Foreign Exchange Management (Remittance of Assets) Regulations, 2016. Forms 15CA and 15CB are required under the income-tax rules. Checked 20 September 2026.
The exchange rate is the daily mid-market reference rate of the European Central Bank and 97 other central banks, cross-rated against the rupee by Frankfurter. Your bank's rate will be worse. What that costs.
Moving a large sum out this year?
The order the steps happen in — tax, the two forms, the transfer — decides whether the money moves in weeks or in months.