RNOR sits between “NRI” and fully “resident”. It’s a status the same residency rules can give you, under 2025 Act s. 6was s. 6, once you’ve been in India long enough in a year to count as resident, but you haven’t been ordinarily resident recently — typically because you’d spent a good stretch of the years before that living abroad.
Two other groups are RNOR too, without moving back: an Indian citizen or person of Indian origin whose Indian income is above ₹15 lakh and who spends at least 120 days but less than 182 days in India in the year, and an Indian citizen who is a deemed resident. For them RNOR isn’t a transition; it applies in any year they fall in those groups.
Where an ordinary resident is taxed on income from anywhere in the world, someone who is RNOR is taxed more like an NRI: income that arises in India, or that you receive in India, is taxed as usual, but income that arises outside India generally isn’t — unless it comes from a business controlled from India or a profession set up here. Foreign salary, investment income and bank interest earned and paid to you abroad while you’re RNOR stay outside the Indian tax net; paid straight into an Indian account, they count as received in India and are taxable.
Who this is for
RNOR mostly comes up for people moving back to India after years abroad — returning NRIs settling their affairs, winding down foreign investments, or still holding overseas retirement accounts and bank balances. It gives a transition window to reorganise foreign assets and income before India’s residency rules start treating you as an ordinary resident and taxing your worldwide income.
Exactly how many of the recent years you need to have spent outside India to qualify, and how long the status can last, are set out precisely in the Act and depend on your own travel history — there’s no single answer that fits everyone. If you’re planning a return to India, check your own numbers against the current rules before you assume RNOR applies, and don’t treat a friend’s experience as a guide to your own.
Why it matters
RNOR can be a genuine planning opportunity — realising foreign gains or closing foreign accounts while the income they generate stays out of Indian tax — but only if you know your window and don’t let it lapse before you act. Stock options are less simple: the part of the benefit that relates to work you did in India is taxable here even while you’re RNOR, so get advice before exercising. See our guide to RNOR status for the mechanics.
Also called: Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident, Not Ordinarily Resident
See also
Where it matters
- Do NRIs need to file an ITR? Every case where you must (and where you don't)
- Which ITR form should an NRI use? Capital gains, rent, business income and Schedule FA
- Visiting India with higher Indian income: the day test explained
- How to count your days in India for residency
- Deemed resident: when an Indian citizen is taxed as resident without visiting
- H-1B holders: US tax residency and Indian residency in the same year