r2i forum

I am an NRI living in the US. I am slated to return to India within the next two years. I have a few questions about R2I and was hoping you guys could help answer them -

- Can I keep my bank accounts (Bank of America), investment accounts (Wealthfront, Motif, Vanguard), 401k account (Charles Schwab) after R2I or do I have to close them?
- Can I keep my US credit card accounts open (especially the ones with no foreign transaction fee option)

If the answers to the above questions are yes and yes, is it possible to use these funds via US bank and credit card accounts in India? I am thinking of keeping all accounts and selling my investments each month/quarter for living expenses in India and using the money through the no foreign transaction fee credit cards. I understand I'd be taking currency exchange risks if the rupee bounces back from 73 where it is now, but I want to know if this can be done and what would be the tax liabilities in this case. The income which I would have would not be accrued in India so I don't see how it would be taxable in India if it is not repatriated. The income in US would most likely be less than the minimum income required to pay any taxes for a couple filing jointly.

I would greatly appreciate some insight into this as my knowledge on this front is limited and online resources can't be found saying one way or the other.

Thanks!

Hi Abhinav,

Different organizations have different rules. Bank of America allowed it when I moved 4 years back to have international address. DCU even now sends their new credit and debit card to my Bangalore address so that shouldn't be an issue either. There are detailed discussions on several threads see under "USA Finance.. " and "Indian Finance" section. Also you can call the customer service for your banks and ask them directly. Please post your experience here as well so others may benefit from you.

Thanks so much for your reply Dwija123. I understand that it might depend on institution. I called Vanguard and they said that I'd just have to submit proof of residence in India and then they'd send me a W-8BEN electronic form to fill out for tax purposes. However, I wanted to see if anyone on this forum had ever tried doing this. With the dollar value where it is now, it seems like a no brainer to me but maybe I am not looking at the complete picture.

Following allowed my address update to India address
Vanguard
Fidelity
Bank of america
credit union bank
amazon chase credit card ( no foreign transaction fees)
discover card

Another option you can consider is to get a US mailing address as communication address for bank/credit card, plus US phone number set up, so that you don't run into such issues. I use virtualpostmail.com and Google voice phone number, works pretty well.