RNOR status for returning NRIs.

RNOR stands for resident but not ordinarily resident. It is one of three residential statuses in Indian income tax, sitting between non-resident and resident and ordinarily resident. It exists for people who have become resident in India again after a long time abroad, and it limits which of their income India taxes for a while.

Status is decided separately for every tax year, which in India runs from 1 April to 31 March. Nobody applies for RNOR or is granted it: it follows from how many days you have spent in India, and you declare it on your Indian tax return.

From tax year 2026-27 the rules sit in the Income-tax Act, 2025, which replaced the 1961 Act. The tests described on this page are the same under both.

You qualify in a tax year if you are resident in India that year and meet either of two tests: you were non-resident in nine out of the ten preceding tax years, or you spent 729 days or fewer in India during the seven preceding tax years. Meeting one of them is enough.

You have to be resident first. An individual is resident in a tax year after 182 days or more in India in that year, or after 60 days or more in that year together with 365 days or more over the four preceding years. Different day counts apply to some Indian citizens and people of Indian origin, depending on why they are in India and how much Indian income they have.

Someone who does not meet the resident test at all is a non-resident for that year, which is a different status with its own rules.

Usually two tax years after you become resident, and sometimes three. It is not a fixed period: the tests are run again every tax year against your day counts, so the status lasts until you have been resident too often, or present for too many days, to pass either of them.

A typical case: someone who lived in the US for ten years or more and visited India briefly each year was non-resident in all ten preceding years when they come back. They pass the nine-out-of-ten test in their first resident year and again in the second. In the third they have two resident years behind them, so that test fails, and whether the 729-day test still helps depends on exactly how many days they have spent in India.

Long visits to India in the years before the move use up the 729 days and can shorten the period. Keep a record of your travel dates: passports get replaced, and memory is not evidence.

Income that arises in India or is received in India is taxed as usual. Income that arises outside India is generally not taxed in India while you are RNOR, unless it comes from a business controlled in India or a profession set up in India. Once you are ordinarily resident, your worldwide income is taxable.

That is why the status matters to returnees: interest, dividends, rent and gains on assets left abroad can fall outside Indian tax for those years. It does not remove tax where the income arises, so US-source income can still be taxed by the US.

How a particular item is treated, a US retirement account for example, depends on its facts and on the India-US tax treaty. Get that answer from a chartered accountant who handles cross-border returns.

Yes. Residence is counted in days per tax year, and India's tax year runs from 1 April to 31 March. The date you land decides how many days fall in that first year, and so whether you become resident in it or stay non-resident until the next one begins.

Arriving late in the tax year can leave you short of 182 days for that year. Whether that keeps you non-resident depends on the 60-day test and your earlier visits, so work it through with real dates before you book rather than after.

No. RNOR is an Indian status and decides only what India taxes. The United States taxes its citizens and green card holders on worldwide income wherever they live, and applies its own residency tests to everyone else. Leaving on a work visa usually ends US tax residency, but on US rules and US dates.

The year you move is often a part-year in both countries, with a return to file in each. FBAR and other foreign-account reporting can also apply for as long as you are a US filer.

No. Bank accounts follow India's foreign exchange rules, not your income tax status. Under Reserve Bank of India rules an NRE account is redesignated as a resident account, or its balance moved to a Resident Foreign Currency account, once you return to India to stay. An NRO account is redesignated as a resident account as well.

Existing FCNR(B) deposits may run to maturity at the contracted rate if you want them to, and are converted then. Tell your bank when you move rather than waiting to be asked.

The tax exemption on NRE interest depends on being non-resident under the foreign exchange rules, so it does not continue just because you are RNOR for income tax.

Count your days in India for each tax year, 1 April to 31 March, going back ten years. Mark each year resident or non-resident, then test the year in question: non-resident in nine of the ten preceding years, or 729 days or fewer in India across the seven preceding years.

Work from passport stamps and airline bookings rather than memory. If a count lands close to a threshold, have an adviser confirm it: a few days either way changes the answer.