Guide
Accreditation when you live outside India
The thresholds are identical to a resident’s. What changes is how you are verified and which address is on record.
Checked against SEBI’s framework and the agency’s own guidance on 23 Sept 2026 · 5 min read
The short answer
The tests are identical — the verification is not
A non-resident meets exactly the same income and net worth thresholds as anyone else. What differs is mechanical: how the agency verifies you, which address is on record, and which documents evidence it. None of it requires you to be in India, and none of it requires an Indian mobile number.
Verification
Your codes arrive by email, both of them
A resident applicant gets one code by email and a second by SMS. For a non-resident the agency sends both by email, and the mobile field on the application carries a placeholder. So an overseas number that cannot receive Indian SMS — or no Indian number at all — is not an obstacle.
What this does mean is that the email address on your application has to be one you can open promptly. The second code is what submits your application; until it is entered, the agency holds the filing as started but not submitted.
Address
Overseas address, overseas proof
Your address of record is where you actually live. Postcodes that are not six digits, states that do not exist in an Indian list, cities that double as districts — all of that is normal and handled. What matters is that the address on the application, the address on your proof, and the address you would put on a fund document are the same address.
Documents
What a non-resident provides
The list is the individual list, read against your overseas address.
PAN card
A clear scan of the front of your PAN card, saved as a PDF.
Proof of address
Your passport (or another officially valid document) showing the overseas address on your profile.
Income tax return — last financial yearoptional
The ITR-V acknowledgement or the full return. If you have not filed it yet, file it first: the agency needs it.
CA net-worth certificate — last financial year
On your CA’s letterhead with a UDIN, dated within the last six months, showing how much of your net worth is in financial assets. Give your CA the format.
Income tax return — the year before3-year certificate onlyoptional
The ITR-V acknowledgement or the full return for the year before last.
CA net-worth certificate — the year before3-year certificate only
On your CA’s letterhead with a UDIN, for the year before last. Your CA can use the same format.
Signed undertaking
The agency’s declaration that what you give is true. Download the format, sign and date it, and upload it as a PDF.
Worth knowing
Four things non-residents get caught by
An Aadhaar does not make you resident
Plenty of non-residents hold an Aadhaar and keep Indian bank accounts. Residency is a tax question, decided by where you lived during the year — not by the documents in your drawer.
Your address of record is the overseas one
A non-resident applies on their overseas address, not an Indian one, and the proof has to match it. This is also the address that prints on fund documents later.
Income earned abroad still counts
The tests look at your income and net worth, not at where they arose. Foreign salary, foreign holdings and foreign property all count, on the same thresholds as anyone else.
Your CA certificate is still an Indian CA’s
The net-worth certificate has to come from a Chartered Accountant, with a UDIN. An overseas accountant’s statement, however senior the firm, is not the same document.
Investing into an Indian fund afterwards raises separate questions — repatriable or non-repatriable accounts, tax residency declarations, the rate at which distributions are taxed. Those sit with the fund you invest through, not with your accreditation.
Next