Open an NRI demat account

An NRI (Non-Resident Indian) account is for Indian citizens who are residing outside India for employment, business, or other purposes. You're considered an NRI if you've been outside India for more than 182 days in a financial year.

Yes, you can open an account online via aadhaar esign, if you are in India. If you are outside India, you’ll have to fill up the forms online, print pre-approved forms and courier them to our head office.

To open an NRI account, you'll need a copy of your PAN card, passport, visa, overseas address proof, and a PIS letter from your bank (for NRE accounts). You can choose between an NRE or NRO account type depending on your investment preferences.

Non-Resident External (NRE) and Non-Resident Ordinary (NRO) accounts are bank accounts designed specifically for NRIs to manage income earned abroad and in India. The difference between NRE and NRO accounts lies in how the funds are sourced, taxed, and repatriated.

While NRE and NRO accounts are for banking purposes, PIS and Non-PIS accounts refer to the investment routes through which NRIs can buy and sell stocks in India. These routes determine how investments are reported and regulated by the RBI.

Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS) is a scheme of the Reserve Bank of India under which NRIs can purchase or sell shares of listed Indian companies. To open a NRE account in Zerodha, NRIs must have a PIS account with any one of the following banks: IDFC First, Yes bank, Axis, HDFC, ICICI or IndusInd bank.

Yes, NRIs can open a joint demat account, but both holders must be NRIs and linked to the same PIS account if it's an NRE-based account.

Foreign nationals can open a Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) account, provided they have a PAN card. The detailed procedure to open a trading account at Zerodha as a foreign national includes documentation, compliance checks, and coordination with a designated bank and custodian.

If your KYC status isn't verified as an NRI and you cannot visit one of our offices in India, your documents must be notarised by the Indian Embassy, authorised officials, or equivalent authorities abroad.

The charge to open an NRI equity trading and demat account is ₹500.

The charges applicable to a Zerodha account are:

• Brokerage:
  • Equity Delivery for PIS: 0.5% or ₹200, whichever is lower per executed order.
  • Equity Delivery and F&O for Non-PIS: 0.5% or ₹50, whichever is lower per executed order.
• Annual Maintenance Charges (AMC): Annual Maintenance Charges (AMC) are ₹125 + 18% GST per quarter.
• Clearing charges for Orbis customers trading F&O using CP code:
  • Futures: ₹150 per crore charged monthly.
  • Options: ₹1,500 per crore charged monthly.
• Statutory charges: There are various statutory charges: Securities Transaction Tax (STT), Transaction charges, GST, SEBI charges, and Stamp charges. These charges vary based on the segment.

Once the account opening process is completed, it can take up to 72 hours to open. This is because the account details must be registered with the exchanges and depositories.

NRI clients whose residential status is not updated on the Income Tax Department (ITD) by 24th February 2024 will be blocked from trading on NSE (PDF) and BSE (WEB). To reactivate the PAN, clients must submit documents to their respective Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO). You can follow the detailed steps in this guide on how to update the resident status of PAN for NRI and PIO accounts.

• Cash segment (equity delivery)
• Derivatives (futures and options)
• Mutual funds
• Government securities and bonds

Yes. Zerodha follows country-level compliance based on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) country lists:

• Blacklisted countries: NRIs living here cannot open an account.
• Greylisted countries: NRIs may open an account only after compliance approval. anchor text - FATF (Financial Action Task Force) country lists

You'll need to convert your NRI account to a resident account by submitting the required documents.