How to Repatriate Money From an NRO Account: The Sequence That Turns a Month Into a Week

You have Rs 1.6 crore sitting in an NRO account in Mumbai. Some is rent that piled up over four years, some is the proceeds of a flat you sold, some is interest the bank paid you. You are in London, or Dubai, or New Jersey, and you want that money in your local account. The instinct is to treat this as a banking problem and start with the bank. That is exactly the mistake that turns a one-week job into a one-month ordeal. NRO repatriation is a tax problem with a banking step bolted on the end, and the people who sequence it the other way around are the ones whose files get bounced.

The 30-second answer: You can repatriate up to USD 1 million per financial year from your NRO account, net of taxes, no RBI approval needed below that ceiling. The order that matters: settle the Indian tax and TDS on the income first, then have a chartered accountant issue Form 146 (the renamed Form 15CB, required once taxable remittances cross Rs 5,00,000 in the year), then file Form 145 (the renamed Form 15CA) yourself online, then hand both plus your documents to the bank, which executes the transfer. The forms were renamed under the Income-tax Act, 2025 from April 1, 2026, so the new numbers are live now. By contrast, NRE and FCNR balances are freely repatriable with no limit and no forms. The USD 1 million cap is pooled across rent, dividends, interest and sale proceeds combined, and it does not roll over.

This guide assumes you already know the basics of NRE versus NRO; if you do not, start with NRE, NRO and FCNR accounts compared. What follows is the part that actually costs time and money: why the tax step gates everything, exactly when the CA certificate stops being optional, the new Form 145 and 146 numbers you will see on the portal this year, the lifetime two-property rule that NRIs routinely misread, and a realistic timeline so you can tell when your bank is slow versus when your own tax file is the holdup.

Sequence the tax first, because the bank cannot fix a tax problem

Almost every guide lists the steps as forms, documents, bank. That ordering is why people get stuck. The binding constraint is the phrase "net of taxes" in the RBI rule: the figure that counts against your USD 1 million is what leaves India after Indian tax is settled, and your CA literally cannot certify a clean remittance sitting on top of unpaid tax. So the real step zero is tax, and it is the step that blows up timelines when skipped.

The income in your NRO account has usually had TDS deducted at source already, but not always at the right rate. NRO interest is fully taxable and the bank deducts TDS for non-residents at 30% plus surcharge and 4% cess, an effective 31.2% at the base level and higher once surcharge bites above Rs 50 lakh of income. Rent paid to an NRI carries TDS, dividends carry TDS, and capital gains on Indian assets carry TDS deducted by the buyer or the registrar. The contrast that explains the whole system: NRE and FCNR interest is tax-free, which is precisely why those accounts need no certificate to repatriate.

Before you move anything, get square with the department in this order. First, confirm the TDS that was deducted actually shows up in your Form 26AS and Annual Information Statement, because a mismatch here is the single most common cause of a stalled file. Second, if TDS was over-deducted, decide between the two routes: apply ahead of time for a lower or nil-deduction certificate under Section 197 (Form 13), or simply claim the excess as a refund when you file your return. Third, and this is the lever most NRIs leave on the table, if a DTAA rate beats 31.2% you can have the bank apply the treaty rate at source against a valid Tax Residency Certificate and Form 10F, which stops the cash being locked up in the first place rather than chasing it back as a refund a year later. Fourth, pay any balance tax, for instance self-assessment tax on a capital gain where TDS fell short, before the CA issues the certificate, because the certificate is what attests the tax is clean.

If the TDS drag is your main pain, the certificate and refund mechanics live in reducing NRO TDS using the DTAA, tax on NRO interest, and TDS for NRIs and refunds. For rent specifically, see tax on Indian rental income for NRIs.

The forms were renamed this year: it is Form 145 and Form 146 now

If you repatriated before and you are doing it again in 2026, the first surprise on the income tax portal is that Form 15CA and Form 15CB are gone by those names. Under the Income-tax Act, 2025, in force from April 1, 2026, Form 15CA became Form 145 and Form 15CB became Form 146, sitting under sections 393, 395, 397 and 462 and Rule 220 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026. Because we are now into FY 2026-27, this is not a future change to plan for, it is the live framework, and your bank and CA will use the new numbers on every fresh remittance. Anything you filed as 15CA or 15CB before March 31, 2026 remains valid for remittances dated on or before the date in the form, so there is no need to redo old filings.

The substance did not move, only the labels and the legal references. Form 146 is the chartered accountant's certificate. A CA examines the nature of the income, confirms the correct tax treatment and DTAA position, confirms TDS or self-assessment tax is deducted or paid, and certifies that the remittance complies with the Act and FEMA. The CA prepares and files it online. Form 145 is your own declaration, filed by you on the e-filing portal, drawing on the details in Form 146. The sequence is unchanged and unforgiving: CA issues Form 146 first, you file Form 145 referencing it, then the bank acts. Filing them out of order, or skipping the CA certificate when it is required, is still the most common reason a bank kicks a request back to you.

Form 145 keeps the same four-part structure, and which part you use depends on the amount and the tax position.

Situation	What you file
Taxable remittance, aggregate up to Rs 5,00,000 in the FY	Form 145 Part A only (no CA certificate)
Taxable remittance above Rs 5,00,000, with an AO certificate under Sec 395(1)/395(2)	Form 145 Part B
Taxable remittance above Rs 5,00,000, with a CA certificate	Form 145 Part C plus Form 146
Remittance not chargeable to tax at all	Form 145 Part D

The line that decides things for most readers: once your taxable remittances cross Rs 5,00,000 in aggregate for the financial year and you do not hold a special Assessing Officer certificate, you need Form 146 plus Form 145 Part C. Since almost any serious NRO repatriation clears Rs 5 lakh, banks treat the CA certificate as standard, and you should budget the CA fee and a day or two of lead time into the plan from the start.

Two traps hide in that table. The Rs 5 lakh test is on the aggregate for the year, not per transaction, so a string of "small" transfers quietly crosses the line mid-year and pulls you into the Form 146 requirement without you noticing. And filing Form 145 wrong, or not filing it when required, attracts a penalty of Rs 1,00,000 per default under the old Section 271-I and its successor in the 2025 Act. This is not paperwork to improvise. For certifying treaty positions inside Form 146, see DTAA mechanics, the TRC and Form 10F.

The USD 1 million cap, and the two mistakes people make with it

The cap is USD 1,000,000 per financial year (or the equivalent in another freely convertible currency) per person out of NRO, and the headline number is easy. The two mistakes that cost real money are subtler.

The first mistake is reading the limit as per source. It is pooled. It is not USD 1 million per property, per transaction, or per account: rent, dividends, NRO interest, gift money, inheritance and sale proceeds all draw on the same single bucket, and once that bucket is empty you wait for April 1. The second mistake is treating it as a calendar-year figure. It runs April 1 to March 31, which is the lever for moving more than a million in a short window: a remittance on March 28 and another on April 3 fall in two different limits, so a Rs 1.6 crore pool that would breach one year's cap clears comfortably if you straddle the year-end deliberately rather than by accident. Unused limit does not carry forward, so moving only USD 300,000 this year does not buy you USD 1.7 million of headroom next year; each year resets flat at USD 1 million.

A married couple who are both NRIs each hold a separate USD 1 million limit, and splitting the holdings to remit from two accounts is the standard way large sums leave in a single year without an RBI application. Above the ceiling, you must seek prior RBI approval through your authorised dealer bank, granted case by case and typically taking 60 to 90 days, which is exactly the delay the year-straddle or the spouse route is designed to avoid.

The documents the bank will demand, and the one category that stalls files

Banks vary slightly in their forms, but the core set is consistent, and the category that actually delays things is proof of source. Have the lot ready before you start. You will need Form A2, the FEMA declaration and application for outward remittance in the bank's format; your filed Form 145 acknowledgement from the portal; the Form 146 certificate from your CA where applicable; a request letter instructing the bank to remit with the beneficiary details, your overseas bank, IBAN or SWIFT and account number; proof of taxes paid, typically Form 26AS, the TDS certificate in Form 16A and challans for any self-assessment tax; and KYC, meaning passport, OCI or visa proof of NRI status, and PAN.

The document that decides your timeline is proof of source of funds, because this is where banks get specific and unbending. For a property sale they want the registered sale deed, the original purchase deed, and proof of how you funded that original purchase. For investment proceeds they want broker contract notes or redemption statements. For rent, the lease and the rent credits. For a gift, a gift deed. For inheritance, the will, the succession certificate or legal-heir documents. A property or inheritance file with a gap in this chain is the classic case that sits at the branch for weeks while the trade-finance desk asks for one more paper. If your repatriation is genuinely below Rs 5 lakh and the income is not taxable, some banks accept a self-declaration with Form 145 Part D and lighter documentation, but above the threshold expect the full set including Form 146.

What the bank actually does, and how long it really takes

The bank is the authorised dealer that executes the remittance under FEMA, and it is not a rubber stamp. It checks your documents are complete, the forms are internally consistent, you have headroom left in your USD 1 million for the year, and the source of funds is documented. Then it converts rupees at its card rate, which is usually a percentage worse than the interbank rate, so a large remittance is worth a quick call to negotiate or to compare the bank's rate against booking a forward, and sends the funds by SWIFT.

Assuming your tax is already clean, the realistic clock looks like this. Form 146 from the CA takes one to three working days once the CA has all your documents. Filing Form 145 yourself is same-day and online once the certificate is in hand. Bank processing after submission is typically two to seven working days for a clean file, with a first-time repatriation or anything involving property sitting at the longer end because the branch escalates to a central trade-finance desk. SWIFT transit to your overseas account is one to three working days after the bank releases it. Net it out and a well-prepared NRO repatriation lands in roughly one to two weeks from the day your tax is settled. The variable that blows that out is almost never the bank; it is the tax step, an unresolved TDS mismatch or an unpaid capital-gains liability that adds weeks. Settle the tax first and the rest is mechanical.

Put rupee and dollar numbers on the simple case first. Anjali, an NRI in Manchester, has watched rent on her Bengaluru flat and interest on an NRO fixed deposit pile up over four years. By March 2026 her NRO account holds Rs 38,40,000 of accumulated net rent, Rs 9,60,000 of NRO fixed deposit interest, and she wants to move the Rs 48,00,000 pool. The bank already deducted TDS on the interest at the non-resident rate: on the Rs 9,60,000, TDS at the effective 31.2% comes to Rs 2,99,520, taken out before the net was credited. The rent was subject to TDS at source by her tenant, so the figure she holds is already net. When she files her AY 2026-27 return she finds her actual liability on the interest is lower under the India-UK DTAA and is due a partial refund, but that refund is claimed separately and does not hold up the transfer. Her repatriable balance net of taxes is the Rs 48,00,000 in the account. Because the taxable remittance comfortably clears Rs 5,00,000, she needs Form 146 plus Form 145 Part C. Converting at an assumed Rs 84.50 per USD, Rs 48,00,000 divided by 84.50 is USD 56,805, well inside her USD 1,000,000 limit, so no RBI approval. Her CA issues Form 146 in two days, she files Form 145 the same afternoon, the bank remits within a week, and her headroom for the year is roughly USD 9,43,195 left.

Sale proceeds: the lifetime two-property rule almost everyone misreads

Sale proceeds are the largest NRO repatriation most people ever make, and they carry rules layered on top of the USD 1 million cap. The one that gets misread, even by otherwise careful NRIs, is the property route, and the misreading is expensive.

The route depends entirely on how you originally bought the property. If you bought it with foreign exchange, meaning funds remitted from abroad or drawn from your NRE or FCNR account, you may repatriate the sale proceeds up to the amount of that original foreign-currency investment, and this is where the misread lives: RBI permits this foreign-exchange repatriation route for only two residential properties in your lifetime, not two per year. Use it on two flats and the third flat, however you funded it, falls back into the USD 1 million scheme. The gain above your original foreign-currency cost on even the first two also falls under the USD 1 million scheme. If instead you bought the property with rupee funds, for example out of NRO money or while you were resident in India, the whole proceeds go into NRO and repatriate under the ordinary USD 1 million per year limit with no special route at all.

The practical consequence is that the foreign-exchange route is a scarce, lifetime resource, and spending it on a small flat is a waste when you may later sell a large one. Investment proceeds are simpler: shares, mutual funds or bonds sold in India land in NRO unless they were held on a repatriable basis through an NRE-linked portfolio, and they repatriate under the same USD 1 million umbrella once the capital-gains tax and TDS are settled. The gain mechanics are in capital gains tax for NRIs on shares and mutual funds; the full property workflow, including the buyer's TDS and how to reclaim excess, is in selling property in India as an NRI and repatriating investment proceeds.

The property case is where the tax-first sequence earns its keep, so work it through. Rohan, an NRI in Toronto, sells a Pune apartment he bought years ago with rupee savings, so the proceeds repatriate under the ordinary USD 1 million route, not the lifetime two-property route. The sale consideration is Rs 1,80,00,000, his indexed cost and eligible expenses are Rs 1,10,00,000, and the long-term capital gain is Rs 70,00,000. Because the seller is a non-resident, the buyer must deduct TDS, and here is the trap that makes the Section 197 certificate worth the effort: left alone, a cautious buyer deducts on the entire sale value rather than the gain. At an effective long-term rate of roughly 14.95% (12.5% plus surcharge and cess), TDS on the full Rs 1,80,00,000 would be about Rs 26,91,000, against a true liability on the gain of only Rs 70,00,000 x 14.95% = Rs 10,46,500. That is roughly Rs 16,44,500 of his own money frozen for a year until he files and claims it back. Rohan instead obtains a lower-deduction certificate under Section 197 keyed to the actual gain, the buyer deducts the correct Rs 10,46,500, and the net credited to his NRO account is Rs 1,69,53,500. Converting at Rs 84.50 per USD, that is USD 2,00,633, comfortably under USD 1,000,000, so a single remittance in one financial year works with no RBI approval. His CA's Form 146 confirms the gain and the settled TDS, he files Form 145, and the bank releases the funds in about a week once it has the registered sale deed, the original purchase deed and the TDS certificate. He still files his AY 2026-27 return to reconcile the final tax. The lesson in the contrast: skipping the Section 197 step would not change his eventual tax by a rupee, but it would have parked over Rs 16 lakh with the government for a year.

The cases that break the simple flow

A handful of situations need their own handling. If you must move more than USD 1 million in one year, the cheapest fix is rarely the RBI application; split across two financial years by remitting before March 31 and again after April 1, or use a spouse's separate limit, and keep the 60 to 90-day RBI route as the last resort. If the income is genuinely not taxable in India, you still file Form 145, but Part D, and you may not need Form 146; do not self-assess non-taxability on a large sum, because getting it wrong invites the Rs 1,00,000 penalty, and a CA confirming it costs far less. If the funds came from a gift or inheritance, they repatriate from NRO under the same USD 1 million limit, but banks scrutinise source documents hardest here, so have the gift deed, or the will, succession certificate and legal-heir proof, ready before you approach the branch.

Two more catch people out. If you are becoming a returning NRI or RNOR, your account status and repatriation rights shift when you move back, covered in returning NRI account conversion and the RNOR residency rules. And if shares or property were held on a repatriable basis funded from NRE or FCNR, the proceeds may bypass the NRO route and the USD 1 million cap entirely, so always check how the asset was funded before you assume the cap applies; it can be the difference between a capped, gated remittance and a free one.

The honest read

The honest read is that NRO repatriation feels intimidating from the outside and is almost boring once you sequence it correctly, and the single decision that determines which experience you have is refusing to treat the bank as the hard part. It is not. The hard part is the tax: confirming TDS was deducted correctly and matches your 26AS, applying the right DTAA rate at source rather than chasing a refund, paying any shortfall, and getting a clean Form 146. Do that first and the bank stage runs in a week.

So commit to three things for the common case. Keep your NRO income tax-clean year by year, because a clean file is what makes the whole process mechanical. Use the DTAA and, on any property sale, a Section 197 certificate to stop tax over-deducting at source, because financing the government for a year on Rs 16 lakh of your own money is the most avoidable cost in this entire process. And for very large sums, plan across two financial years or two people rather than chasing an RBI approval, since the year runs April to March and the limit is per person. The exception who genuinely needs to escalate is the single person moving well over USD 1 million in one shot from rupee-funded assets with no spouse to split across and no appetite to wait for the year-end; that person, and the person with a tangled inheritance chain, is who should pay a CA and possibly approach RBI early rather than rely on a guide, this one included. Everyone else can repatriate up to a million dollars a year with nothing more dramatic than two online forms and a week's wait.

Related guides

• NRE, NRO and FCNR accounts compared
• Reducing NRO TDS using the DTAA
• Sending money to India
• Returning NRI account conversion
• Tax on NRO interest
• TDS for NRIs and refunds
• Reducing NRO TDS with the DTAA
• DTAA mechanics, the TRC and Form 10F
• Tax on Indian rental income for NRIs
• Capital gains tax for NRIs on shares and mutual funds
• Selling property in India as an NRI
• Repatriating investment proceeds
• ITR filing for NRIs, AY 2026-27
• The Banking guides hub

This guide is general information, not tax, legal or investment advice. Repatriation limits, TDS rates and DTAA positions change, and the Form 15CA/15CB framework was renamed Form 145/146 under the Income-tax Act, 2025 with effect from April 1, 2026. Your own position depends on your residency status, the source of the funds and the relevant tax treaty, so confirm the current rules and engage a qualified chartered accountant before you repatriate or file any form.