r2i forum

Happymister,

I did the same thing :) Got my drivers license with the right address and a PAN Card to open my account.

You are right. I had a long discussion with the branch manager at HDFC bank he eventually said that I will be treated as an NRI for the trading account purposes since I am a USC/OCI.

BUT.. he is willing to open the account just with my PAN card and drivers license as long as I say that I am an "INDIAN" in the application for Nationality.

Bottom line, I think its up to us to figure out what we want to do ;)

Since OCI stands for Overseas "Citizen" of India - technically should'nt one be able to put "Indian" here ?

vishwaGhar;268615Since OCI stands for Overseas "Citizen" of India - technically should'nt one be able to put "Indian" here ?

I think thats it. vishwaGhar put it in the right way. In India you are an Indian and in US you are an American, unless they specifically ask you which country passport you hold.

what about dual citizenship?can i trade as an indian in the US?

Well.. we can interpret OCI in whichever way we want.. if you check your OCI "book", it has a "nationality" and would indicate if you are USC or whatever.

So... OCI is OCI and nationality is what you are the citizen of...

In UK, when asked generally I say that I am Indian. When the nationality is asked, I respond British.

Exactly.

In the case of 4-in-1 account application form of HDFC, there is a column "Nationality" and it is PRINTED as "INDIAN". You dont have the option of specifying any other "Nationality" there.

Back to the original conversation about this thread, Can USC/OCI living in India (resident of india, getting paycheck in india etc) open a DEMAT/Trading account ?

The answer is NOT a resounding "YES".

The caveat here is for USC/OCI folks, since they are residing in india, they are NOT eligible for NRE/NRO accounts. With the above "printed" nationality in the application form, it appears that USC/OCI are not eligible for opening a DEMAT account as resident Indian as well since technically their "nationality" is USC. But it appears that bank is willing to open the account with a photo id ( PAN card) and an address proof (drivers license) with you signing the application filling as Nationality as "INDIAN". My take on this is that when push comes to shove, the bank is going to say "the customer did not disclose the nationality and filled the application wrong" or whatever.

Hence my original question...

May be I am paranoid... but to me.. better safe than sorry.

When I opened the demat account, earlier this decade, I was not asked my nationality. The account opening form did not have a nationality question. Perhaps, they have become a little wiser now.
I had a PAN card and an Indian driving license so probably did not have to profer my passport. Both had been obtained when I still had Indian Nationality and the driving license renewed without any questions being asked. PAN, I had informed the change of nationality as I had applied for a new one thinking that it would need to be changed. They just sent me a photo card with the previous PAN.

Swamy,
During my India visit last year I ran into same problems when I asked various banks this question. My understanding is that most of the banks, mutual fund houses and online brokerages will not entertain a "US Person" (that includes every US "resident" whether on PIO/OCI,GC or H1B etc.) due to the fact that they cant solicit business directly or indirectly due to disclosure and compliance requirements of the US govt. However atleast one non banking brokerage said that they will take an "offline" paper application as a regular "resident" with a PAN card and proof of India residence documentation. The confusion is caused because for tax and govt. purposes there are only two classifications - a resident or a NRI . Somehow a PIO/OCI=NRI. Theres no cross combo existing called "Resident PIO/OCI" and there's no clear rules regarding this that I have come across.

Most recently I filled up a salary account form with a "US based" bank that my company requires us to have for crediting salary here at Gurgaon. I was surprised that the resident account opening form had these three questions - Are you an Indian citizen, If not declare citizenship, If US citizen then provide SSN no. !!! I dutyfully filled the answer (I'm an OCI btw) and sent the form in for processing. A week later the form came back because of some signature mismatch issue. Guess what the guys had done to the form - All the information I had provided regarding citizenship and ssn was crossed off and my nationality marked as Indian !! On asking around I could only guess that the guys handling this had no clue on what to do. I didnt protest and my account is active. I guess one less 1099 to bother about. Moral of the story is that I'm not going to push citizenship status anymore.

I had opened a PIS account last year that I didnt use at all. Now technically I'm a "resident" as per Indian tax laws but apprently still a NRI due to being an OCI in GOI books. I would contact this bank to see if I can close this and open or convert this into a regular demat account with online or even ofline trading. I'll post my findings later on.

Meanwhile you should definately check with non-US institution or non-bank brokerage or banks which have no US aspirations !

Anyone figured this out yet ?

How can a USC/OCI residing in India open a Demat acccount ?