10 Things to Complete before you become NRI

Are you leaving India in next few months or planning to move abroad sometime in future? Then you should be clear with a few points you should complete before you become an NRI. A lot of NRI readers come up with various issues they face, because they never thought about completing few tasks which could have saved them from lots of worries and paperwork. Lets look at 10 things which a person should complete before he/she becomes a NRI (Non resident Indian)

One of the big issues NRI’s face is taking a term plan through a Indian insurance company. It’s always a good idea to take a term plan and then leave the country, otherwise later it gets really tough to get a term plan, for which you will have to visit India and also it also gets quite difficult to opt for online term plan.

Just like term plans, it’s tough to get health insurance once you become a NRI. After becoming a NRI, you will have to visit India for  health checkups and there is more documentation and hassles in the process. Health Insurance is something, you should take anyways , so why wait? Just take it anyway.

3. Open PPF Account

NRIs cant open a fresh PPF account, so before you become a NRI and leave India, open a PPF account. You can open PPF account in ICICI bank, SBI bank or at the Post office. NRI’s can always invest money in their existing PPF account which was already opened by them before leaving India.

A lot of people leave India only to realize later, that they need to open a NRO account in India, and then get into the whole process. Rather than doing it later, why not convert your existing saving bank account into NRO account just before leaving India?  NRIs can deposit all the Indian income into their NRO account and also make payments like EMI payments, and other kind of investments from their NRO account. All it takes is 2 photographs, and a copy of your passport and visa.

A lot of people who become NRI (Non Resident Indian), have a home loan running, for which they have to still pay EMI’s . At times, they want to prepay home loan as fast as possible, because they earn more money outside India. But then the issue is – how to make prepayment when they are outside India? The best option here, is to connect your home loan account with your bank account, so that you can make prepayment to your home loan using NEFT transfer.  Its a good idea to do this before your leave India and try some prepayment just to make sure it works. It might happen that you might need to visit the bank for this, so better complete this before you leave India.

6. Prepare a Power of Attorney 

There can be many things which require your presence in India after you have become an NRI, like if you want to make any real estate transaction or want to operate your bank account etc. It’s always a good idea to have a bit of foresight  and see if you might want to prepare a power of attorney. Power of attorney is a legal way of giving power to someone to act on your behalf. Just choose some trusted family person or a friend. You can also make a power of attorney which expires at some stipulated time.

A lot of people still want to transact in mutual funds after they become NRI, but they have no easy way out at that time. It’s always a great idea to make sure that you open a online account for mutual fund investing while you are in India. For this, you can open a online account with the respective mutual fund AMC’s or the best thing you can do is to open account with FundsIndia. They support indian as well as NRI investors.

If you want to invest your earnings into India and want to get it back in the foreign country (repatriation) , then you would need a NRE account. You can not deposit the local money like interest from FD, rental income etc into the NRE account. So if you have this kind of requirement, then better open a NRE account. The Fixed Deposits rates on NRE accounts are quite attractive in Indian Banks.

Once you become an NRI, you will not be able to sell off your existing demat account shares which you bought before becoming a NRI. You can open & operate a NRI demat account. So before you become an NRI, a good idea is to sell off the existing shares and take back the money or the another option is to open a NRI demat account and transfer your existing stocks to this new account.

10. Update your KYC 

There are different processes for residents and NRIs for various kind of financial products. Like, if you become an NRI and want to do something with banks, mutual funds, life insurance policies (traditional or ULIPs), you will first have to update your KYC and only then can you do something. So its always a good idea to update your KYC, before you become an NRI. This will save you with lots of hassles.

Conclusion

If you follow these 10 things before you become an NRI, you will have a really peaceful time abroad and will not have to get involved into the mess of completing the things, most NRIs miss. While you might be excited to go abroad, better not miss out on these points.

Are you planning to leave India and become NRI Soon ?