NRO to NRE Transfer: The USD 1 million Limit (2026-27)

Short answer

Current income in your NRO account (rent, dividends, pension, interest) can go to NRE or abroad outside the cap, once tax is settled and your bank accepts it as current income. Savings, sale proceeds and inheritances are capped at USD 1 million a financial year, counting NRO-to-NRE transfers and remittances abroad together. Expect Form A2, Form 145 and, usually above ₹5 lakh, a CA's Form 146.

Is this you? This guide covers moving money already in your NRO account out to NRE or abroad. Selling a property right now? Start with selling property in India as an NRI for the tax and TDS, then come back here.

This assumes you're a non-resident for the whole tax year. Moving back this year? Check your residency status first, because the answer can change.

This guide is part of our guide to NRI bank accounts and their tax, which compares NRE, NRO and FCNR accounts. Here we follow money that’s already sitting in your NRO account out to NRE or to a bank account abroad: what counts toward the yearly ceiling, what doesn’t, and the paperwork your bank wants before it will move a rupee.

How money moves between the three accounts. Money you earn abroad goes into NRE or FCNR, and both it and the interest can go back abroad at any time. Income that arises in India goes into NRO, where the bank deducts tax from the interest. You can move NRO money to NRE or abroad only after tax, and above your current income only up to the yearly limit.

What you can move, and what counts toward the limit

Two different rules apply, depending on where the money in your NRO account came from. Getting this distinction right saves you from either overstating what you can send, or holding back money that was never capped in the first place.

Money in your NRO account	Counts toward the yearly cap?	What the bank wants first
Current income: rent, dividends, pension, interest	No, if your bank accepts it as current income	An undertaking that it’s genuinely current income, and proof tax is settled
Accumulated savings, an old fixed deposit, sale of shares or other assets	Yes	The above, plus Form A2 to the bank
Sale proceeds of property you held directly	Yes, same cap	Sale deed and proof of the tax paid on the gain
Money or property you inherited, once sold or banked	Yes, same cap	Will, or succession/legal-heir certificate, plus the death certificate

The cap itself is USD 1 million a financial year (April to March), and it’s one combined number: transfers to your own NRE account and remittances straight abroad both draw on it, so you can’t dodge the limit by moving money to NRE first and sending it on later in the same year. The figure comes from RBI’s Master Direction on Remittance of Assets, a FEMA rule, not from tax law, and it applies per person, not per bank or per account.

The money-out planner adds up what counts toward the cap for you, and shows which tax forms your bank will want.

What counts as current income is the bank’s call

RBI’s Master Direction on Deposits and Accounts lets rent, dividends, pension and interest be credited to NRE, or sent abroad, provided the bank “is satisfied that the credit represents current income” and that tax on it has been deducted, paid or provided for. RBI doesn’t define current income or say how old it can be. This is a grey area, and banks decide it case by case. Income that arrived this financial year and is backed by a rent agreement, a dividend statement or a TDS certificate is the easy case. Income left to pile up over earlier years may be treated as an ordinary balance instead, which counts toward the yearly limit. If you want your rent to stay outside the cap, move it out regularly rather than letting it build up.

The undertaking, and the rules around it

For money that does count toward the cap, RBI requires your bank to take an undertaking from you: that the remittance comes out of your own balances “arising from his/ her legitimate receivables in India and not by borrowing from any other person or a transfer from any other NRO account”. So you can’t borrow from a relative in India, or have money moved in from another NRO account, and then send it out as your own savings. The same Master Direction says that if you send the money in more than one instalment, all of them must go through the same bank. That’s worth knowing before you split a large sale across two banks.

Two more points come from RBI’s FAQ on accounts held by non-residents. An NRO account can be held jointly with a resident on a “former or survivor” basis, but the cap is per person, so a joint account doesn’t double it. And if someone in India runs your NRO account under a power of attorney, they can send current income to you abroad or remit to you through normal banking channels, but the same limits and conditions apply as if you’d done it yourself.

Both routes need the same underlying paperwork. See sending money abroad and the CA certificate rule for how the two forms work together; the checklist further down covers Form A2 as well.

When the CA’s certificate is strictly needed is less settled than most bank checklists suggest. On the tax department’s user manual, Form 145 has four parts. The accountant’s route (Part C) applies where the remittance is taxable and the year’s total is above ₹5 lakh. A separate part covers remittances that aren’t taxable at all, and another covers cases where you hold a certificate from your tax officer. Whether moving your own already-taxed NRO savings is a “taxable remittance” isn’t settled, and RBI simply tells banks to remit on the information in the tax department’s formats. In practice, many banks ask for a CA’s Form 146 for any sale proceeds or inheritance whatever the amount, so ask your bank what it wants before you book the CA.

Above the cap, the only route is the Reserve Bank’s own approval, sought through your bank, granted case by case rather than routinely. For most readers the practical answer is simpler: if a single sale or inheritance would take you over the limit, spread the remittance across two financial years instead of applying for an exception.

One exception is worth knowing if it applies to you: property you originally bought with foreign exchange (money remitted from abroad, or paid from your NRE or FCNR account) can have its sale proceeds repatriated outside this limit, for up to two residential properties in your lifetime (RBI’s FAQ on property, Part II, Q.7). The proceeds of a third residential property, or of one bought with rupees, go through NRO and count toward the yearly limit. That’s a property-specific rule with its own conditions; see selling property in India as an NRI for it.

Step by step

Settle the tax firstEvery route out of NRO assumes tax on the money has been paid or deducted. For interest, that means the TDS your bank already withheld; for a sale or inheritance, it means your capital-gains tax is paid or a lower-deduction certificate is in place. Banks won’t move money without this.
Before you apply to move anything
Work out what’s current income and what isn’tOnly the capital portion — savings, sale proceeds, inheritance — draws on the yearly cap. Keep the two separated in your own records; it’s the first thing your bank will ask.
Get your CA’s certificate if it’s neededAbove ₹5 lakh in the tax year, a chartered accountant normally certifies the tax position on Form 146 and files it online. Many banks ask for it on any sale proceeds or inheritance, whatever the amount, so check with yours first.
File your own remittance declarationThen file Form 145 yourself, online, before the transfer. It states what the money is, how much, and the tax basis. Where a CA’s certificate applies, you quote its acknowledgement number, so your declaration can only come after it.
Give the bank its own formHand your bank Form A2, its application-cum-declaration for buying foreign exchange, along with the source documents for the money — sale deed, inheritance papers, or simply your account statement for old savings.
Same day as the transfer request
The bank remitsTo your NRE account, or straight to your account abroad. Once everything is in order, most banks process it within a few working days.

Worked example

Ravi lives in Singapore. His NRO account holds ₹9,00,000 of rent and interest, most of it from this financial year and the rest from last year, already reported and taxed, plus ₹85,00,000 from selling a flat he inherited from his father three years ago. He wants to move as much of it as he can to his account in Singapore.

The rent and interest are current income. Once Ravi’s bank is satisfied the tax on it is settled, this year’s share can go abroad outside the yearly cap. His bank may treat last year’s share as an ordinary balance rather than current income; if it does, that part counts toward the cap too, which makes no practical difference to Ravi here. The ₹85,00,000 from the inherited flat is capital, so it counts toward USD 1 million for the year, but it’s comfortably inside the limit on its own.

What Ravi sends	Counts toward the cap?	Extra paperwork
₹9,00,000 rent and interest	No, if the bank accepts it all as current income	Undertaking that it’s current income; tax certificates on request
₹85,00,000 sale of an inherited flat	Yes, within the year’s cap	Sale deed, succession/legal-heir papers, his father’s death certificate

Because what he sends from the sale this year is well above ₹5,00,000, Ravi’s chartered accountant certifies the tax position on Form 146 before he files Form 145 himself. He gives his bank Form A2 for each transfer, along with the succession papers, since the flat was his father’s. His bank processes both transfers within the week once the certificates are in.

Forms, documents and deadlines

What	Who	When
Tax on the money paid, or a certificate in place	You	Before you apply
Sale deed, succession/legal-heir papers, or account statements, as applies	You	Before you apply
Form 146 (was Form 15CB), normally if the year’s total is above ₹5 lakh, or whenever your bank asks for it	Your CA	Before your declaration
Form 145 (was Form 15CA) filed online	You	After the certificate, before the transfer
Form A2 and any bank-specific undertaking	You to bank	With the transfer request
Funds credited to NRE or your account abroad	Bank	Usually within a few working days

If you live in the UK, the Gulf or elsewhere

Where you live doesn’t change the Indian side: the same limit and paperwork apply whoever holds the account. It does change what happens once the money lands.

Bringing money into the US isn’t itself a taxable event, but the income it came from usually was already reportable on your US return — the sale or the interest, not the transfer. Large incoming transfers can also trigger your bank’s own reporting under US anti-money-laundering rules; that’s routine, not a tax problem.

Common mistakes

Treating current income as capped, or letting it pile up. Rent and interest can go out once tax is settled and your bank accepts them as current income; only the capital portion uses the yearly limit. Leave income sitting for years and your bank may count it as savings.
Leaving the CA certificate until the day you want to transfer. It’s the single biggest cause of delay, especially around a property sale or a large inheritance.
Worrying about TCS on foreign remittances. That applies to residents sending money abroad under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, not to an NRI moving their own NRO money.
Sending inherited money without succession or legal-heir papers ready. The bank can’t release a large sum on a will alone if there’s a dispute or more than one heir.
Assuming NRO-to-NRE transfers are outside the limit because the money stays in India. RBI treats them as part of the same facility as sending money abroad.

When to get a CA

Get one whenever your capital remittances for the year are likely to cross ₹5 lakh, or your bank asks for a certificate on a sale or inheritance whatever the amount. A CA can also judge whether the remittance is taxable at all, which decides which part of your declaration applies. Also get one if the money includes an inheritance with more than one heir, if you’re combining sale proceeds and other capital in the same year and need to track the cap correctly, or if your bank raises questions about the source of the money that your own paperwork doesn’t answer.

Next steps

Questions people ask

Can I send more than the yearly limit if I have a genuine need?

Only with the Reserve Bank's own permission, applied for through your bank, and it's granted case by case, not as a matter of course. For almost everyone the practical limit is USD 1 million a year; if you're near it, spreading a large sale or inheritance over two financial years is usually simpler than seeking approval.

Does the interest my NRO account earns count toward the USD 1 million limit?

Not if your bank accepts it as current income. Interest, rent, dividends and a pension are a separate, uncapped route, and the limit is for capital: savings, sale proceeds and inheritances. RBI doesn't define how old current income can be, and the bank has to be satisfied that it is current income and that tax on it is settled. Income left to pile up over earlier years may be treated as savings, which counts toward the limit.

Do I need the same remittance forms just to move money from NRO to NRE, not abroad?

Usually, yes. RBI treats a transfer to your own NRE account as part of the same USD 1 million facility as remitting abroad, so the same limit applies. The forms follow from bank practice rather than a separate RBI rule: RBI lets banks remit only on production of information in the formats the tax department prescribes, so most ask for Form 145 and, where needed, Form 146 for an NRO-to-NRE transfer too. Once the money is in NRE, it's fully repatriable with no yearly limit; your bank will still take its Form A2 for the remittance itself.

Will TCS on foreign remittances apply when I move my own NRO money abroad?

No. The tax collected at source on outward remittances applies to residents sending money abroad under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme. You're non-resident, and NRO repatriation runs under a separate FEMA facility, not LRS, so that TCS doesn't apply to you.

What extra documents does the bank want for inherited money?

Proof that you're entitled to it: the will, or a succession or legal-heir certificate if there wasn't one, plus the death certificate. With more than one heir, banks often also ask for a no-objection letter from the others before they'll release a large sum to just one account.

How long does the transfer actually take once the paperwork is ready?

Once your CA's Form 146 is in, if needed, and your Form 145 is filed, most banks process the transfer within a few working days. What actually causes delay is the paperwork itself: a CA certificate requested at the last minute, or a bank asking follow-up questions about the source of the money because the file it was sent didn't answer them upfront.

Sources

Update log

29 October 2026First published.