Residency status checker: NRI, RNOR or resident

How this is worked out

Your residential status is decided afresh for each tax year; this one, 2026-27, starts on 1 April 2026. It isn’t about your passport, your visa or where your family lives. It’s mostly about how many days you spend in India, and for some people how much Indian income they have. The checker applies the tests in 2025 Act s. 6(2)-(5)was s. 6(1) in the same order the law does, and stops as soon as one decides your answer.

Step 1: the day tests

The first test is simple. Spend 182 days or more in India this tax year and you’re resident. Nothing else matters for that question.

The second test catches people who come often. You’re also resident if you spend 60 days or more in India this year and 365 days or more over the previous 4 tax years. Most readers of this site are outside it, though. It doesn’t apply to an Indian citizen who leaves India this year for a job abroad or as crew of an Indian ship. And it doesn’t apply to a citizen or person of Indian origin who lives abroad and comes to India on a visit, unless their Indian income is above ₹15 lakh. For them the test applies with 120 days in place of 60 days. The checker links to the explainer on that rule when it applies to you.

The visiting exception is only for people who live abroad and come on a visit. If you came back to live in India this tax year, choose “Came back to live in India”. The checker treats that year as not a visit, so the second test applies to you in full, whatever your income. The Act doesn’t say whether visits earlier in the same year change this, and there’s no official guidance, so if you visited before you moved back, ask a CA. A move home in the autumn can make you resident on far fewer days than 182 days, usually as RNOR.

Step 2: the deemed-resident rule

If the day tests don’t make you resident, one more rule can. An Indian citizen whose Indian income is above ₹15 lakh, and who isn’t liable to tax in any other country because of where they live or are domiciled, is treated as resident 2025 Act s. 6(7)-(8)was s. 6(1A). This is aimed at people who aren’t liable to tax anywhere else. A deemed resident is always RNOR, so foreign income stays outside Indian tax. If this is you, the checker points to the guide that covers the countries where it comes up.

Step 3: RNOR or ordinarily resident

If you’re resident, the checker then asks whether you’re “not ordinarily resident” 2025 Act s. 6(13)was s. 6(6). You’re RNOR if you were a non-resident in 9 of the previous 10 tax years, or if you spent 729 days or less in India over the previous 7 tax years. You’re also RNOR if you became resident only through the higher-income, 120 days route for visitors. Read literally, the Act may go further and make RNOR any citizen or person of Indian origin with Indian income above ₹15 lakh who spends 120 days or more but under 182 days in India, even after moving back. That point is unsettled. The checker uses the narrower reading and tells you when the wider one could change your answer. As an RNOR taxpayer, India taxes your Indian income, but not most income you earn abroad 2025 Act s. 5was s. 5. If you’ve moved back, the RNOR window planner shows how many years that lasts.

What the checker leaves out

What to do with your result

If you’re a non-resident, most of our guides assume exactly that, and you can read them as written. If you’re RNOR or resident in a year you move, your return changes: which income you report, which form you file, and whether you declare foreign assets. The guide to residency status for NRIs walks through each situation. To see whether your status means you have to file this year, use the ITR filing checker, and for which ITR form fits your income, read our form guide.