NRI Will for Indian Assets: Why Nikhil Finally Made the Call
It was a Sunday video call with Amit, his roommate from engineering college, that started it. Amit had moved to Toronto in 2003, and his mother had passed away in Rajkot eleven months earlier. He was still — still — trying to move her fixed deposit money out of India.
Every time he thought it was done, the bank asked for one more form. “Nikhil, nobody tells you an NRO account and an NRE account are two different animals until your mother’s money is stuck in one of them,” Amit said, half laughing, mostly not.
Nikhil hung up and sat with that for a while. He’d built an engineering contracting business in Dubai over twenty-eight years, since he’d left Vadodara at 27 with a mechanical engineering degree and a two-year contract that never really ended. He had a will — his UAE lawyer had drafted one as part of the company’s succession plan.
He’d always assumed it counted as his NRI will for Indian assets too, covering him fully, everywhere. Amit’s call was the first time he’d actually questioned that assumption.
He still owned the house his father built in Gotri, Vadodara — his outright now, after a family settlement with his two brothers years back. A flat he’d bought himself in Alkapuri in 2012, paid for entirely from his NRE account. Mutual funds worth close to a crore. Two fixed deposits that, until that Sunday, he’d never thought to compare.
An LIC policy with his wife named as nominee. And five acres of his father’s agricultural land near Padra that he and his brothers hadn’t set foot on in a decade.
He picked up the phone again — this time to Ketan, a Vadodara-based CA who’d handled his family’s affairs for years. “Ketan bhai, my UAE will — does it work as my NRI will for Indian assets too?”
There was a pause. “Nikhil bhai, no. It doesn’t. Let’s talk.”
“I meet a lot of Gulf-based Gujarati families who’ve done real estate planning for their business abroad, their UAE will, their succession plan there. What they haven’t done is a proper NRI will for Indian assets, because nobody ever told them the first one doesn’t reach that far.
It’s rarely a case of not caring. It’s assuming one document, drafted under one country’s law, can speak for assets sitting under a completely different one.”
— Paresh Chaudhary, Founder, Shree Radha Financial Services
NRI Will for Indian Assets: The Will He Thought Already Covered Everything
Ketan didn’t sugarcoat it. “Your UAE will was written for UAE law, for your business there. Your house in Gotri, your flat, your land near Padra — that’s Indian immovable property. It’s governed by Indian succession law no matter which passport you’re holding when you die. One document, written for one legal system, generally can’t do both jobs cleanly. That’s the whole reason a proper NRI will for Indian assets exists as its own category of planning.”
This was the first mistake Nikhil almost made without knowing it: assuming “a will” meant “the will,” singular, borderless. What he actually needed was two coordinated wills — one for the UAE, one for India — each written to the standard its own courts and banks expect.
Our broader guide to making a Will in Gujarat covers the domestic version of this same discipline; an NRI will for Indian assets is that same document, adapted for someone signing from abroad.
| One Worldwide Will | An NRI Will for Indian Assets, Kept Separate | |
|---|---|---|
| Governing law | One document, tries to satisfy two legal systems at once | Each will drafted cleanly to the standards of its own country |
| Execution in India | Foreign-format document often needs extra scrutiny before an Indian bank or registrar acts on it | Drafted to Indian Succession Act, 1925 standards — recognised without argument over intent |
| Revocation risk | A later document’s “revokes all previous wills” clause can unintentionally cancel it | Low, if each will expressly limits itself to assets in that country |
| Best suited to | Rare — only very simple estates held in a single country | Most NRIs, including Nikhil, with meaningful assets in more than one country |
NRI Will for Indian Assets: The Flight He Didn’t Need to Book
“So I need to fly down and sign this in front of someone in Vadodara?” Nikhil asked, already mentally checking his calendar for the next quarter.
“No,” Ketan said. “That’s the second thing people get wrong about an NRI will for Indian assets. You can draft and sign it right there in Dubai. Under the Indian Succession Act, what matters is that you’re of sound mind, you sign voluntarily, and two people — not your beneficiaries — watch you sign and sign it themselves. Nothing about where.”
Relief, and a small flash of irritation — how many other NRIs, Nikhil wondered, had put off their own NRI will for Indian assets for years, assuming a trip to India was a prerequisite.
He listed his Indian assets precisely, the way Ketan asked: the Gotri house by its municipal survey number, the Alkapuri flat by its registration details, the mutual funds by folio number, the FDs by account number, the LIC policy by its policy number. Vague descriptions, Ketan warned him, are exactly what cause fights later.
NRI Will for Indian Assets: The Notary That Wasn’t Enough
Nikhil’s instinct was to do what he always did for his UAE business documents — get it notarised locally in Dubai and be done with it. Ketan stopped him there too.
“The UAE never signed the Hague Apostille Convention. A friend of yours in London or Toronto can get a single apostille stamp on a notarised document and it’s accepted in India. You can’t. Your NRI will for Indian assets needs to be attested by the Indian Consulate itself, on top of anything a UAE notary does.”
Nikhil looked into it and found the process was more straightforward than he’d feared — just a different one than he’d assumed. He drafted the will listing his Indian assets, booked an appointment for attestation services at the Consulate General of India, Dubai, at the SGIVS Global-run counter in Oud Metha.
He showed up with the will, two independent witnesses, and everyone’s passports, and signed it in front of the Consular Officer. It cost him somewhere in the AED 150–250 range plus the centre’s service charge, and came back attested in under three working days. One appointment, and his NRI will for Indian assets could now be relied on by an Indian bank or registrar without anyone questioning whether it was genuinely his.
NRI Will for Indian Assets: The Line His CA Struck Out
The near-miss that actually unsettled Nikhil the most came from the draft itself. The template his lawyer’s assistant had pulled up carried a standard closing line: “This will revokes all previous wills and testamentary dispositions made by me.” Standard boilerplate. He almost signed it as-is.
Ketan caught it during review. “Nikhil bhai, read this again. Your UAE will covers your Dubai business. If this line goes into your NRI will for Indian assets unchanged, it could revoke that too — the Indian Succession Act lets a later will cancel an earlier one, and this is written to cancel everything, not just your Indian assets.” One sentence, added at Ketan’s insistence, fixed it: the will would apply only to Nikhil’s assets in India, and would not affect or revoke his UAE will.
The reverse clause went into his UAE document too, the next time he updated it. Two wills, both alive, neither accidentally cancelling the other — but only because someone caught one line before he signed.
NRI Will for Indian Assets: Ninety Days, Not “Whenever”
“At least Gujarat makes the paperwork cheap,” Ketan said, walking him through registration. Wills are exempt from stamp duty under Article 58 of the Gujarat Stamp Act, and registration itself is a nominal ₹500–1,000 — no extra charge for an NRI will for Indian assets versus a resident’s will. Registration is technically optional, but for a family spread across two countries, Ketan pushed for it: harder for anyone to later claim the will was forged or outdated, and it gives a Vadodara bank or the Sub-Registrar something they trust immediately.
Then came the catch Nikhil hadn’t seen anywhere in his own reading. “Because you’re signing this abroad, once you physically bring the original into India, you have three months to get it stamped — Section 18 of the Gujarat Stamp Act.
Miss that window, there’s a penalty.” It was such an easy thing to let slide — sign it in Dubai, feel like the job’s done, forget the clock started the moment it landed in his suitcase. Nikhil wrote the date of his next Vadodara trip on his calendar with a note: stamp the will, don’t just bring it.
NRI Will for Indian Assets: The Probate Fear That Was Only Half True
Amit’s Toronto ordeal had left Nikhil assuming the worst about Indian courts — that whatever he left behind would sit tangled in probate for years, the way Amit’s mother’s estate had. Ketan corrected the picture. “Compulsory probate under Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act is really about wills involving Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh or Jain testators where the property is in the old presidency towns — Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata. Your house in Gotri, your flat in Alkapuri — Gujarat property generally doesn’t need probate unless someone actually contests the will.”
It was the first genuinely good news of the conversation. Not because probate was gone — it wasn’t, for the right property — but because Nikhil had been dreading a rule that, for the specific assets his NRI will for Indian assets needed to cover, simply didn’t apply the way he’d feared.
NRI Will for Indian Assets: Two Fixed Deposits, Two Different Rules
This was the moment Amit’s Sunday complaint stopped being someone else’s problem and became Nikhil’s own. He had two FDs that looked, on paper, identical: his own NRE fixed deposit of ₹40 lakh, built from twenty-eight years of Dubai earnings, and an NRO fixed deposit of ₹15 lakh he’d inherited from his mother two years earlier and never really looked at since.
“These are not the same asset, and your NRI will for Indian assets needs to say so,” Ketan said. “Your NRE FD, and your mutual funds sitting in that NRE-linked demat account too — fully, freely repatriable to your heirs.
No ceiling, just the death certificate and succession paperwork. The NRO FD your mother left you — that’s capped at USD 1 million a financial year, and it needs Form 15CA, Form 15CB from a chartered accountant, and a tax clearance under Section 281 before anyone can move it out of India.” Our detailed NRO repatriation guide walks through this exact process for NRIs moving India-sourced money abroad.
| NRE Fixed Deposit / NRE-linked MF | NRO Fixed Deposit | |
|---|---|---|
| Repatriation to heirs abroad | Fully and freely repatriable, no ceiling | Capped at USD 1 million per financial year |
| Paperwork after death | Death certificate and succession documents | Same, plus Form 15CA (Part D), Form 15CB (CA certificate), and a Section 281 tax clearance |
| Typical source | The NRI’s own foreign earnings | Often inherited or India-sourced funds — like Nikhil’s mother’s FD |
| Effect on Nikhil’s estate | Moves to his heirs with minimal friction | Needs a CA’s sign-off before his heirs can move it out of India |
“So this is what happened to Amit’s mother’s money,” Nikhil said slowly. “Exactly this,” Ketan replied. “Except nobody had flagged it for his mother’s estate ahead of time. Your NRI will for Indian assets is flagging it now — for your son’s sake, that’s the entire difference.”
NRI Will for Indian Assets: The Land His Son May Never Be Able to Sell
The Padra land came up almost as an afterthought — five acres, undivided between Nikhil and his two brothers, sitting untouched since their father passed. Nikhil’s first instinct was to write one line: “my one-third share of the Padra land to my son.” Ketan stopped him again.
“He can inherit it — no RBI approval needed for that, inheritance of agricultural land is allowed. But he can’t resell it to another NRI, an OCI, or a foreign national. Only to someone resident in India who’s eligible to hold agricultural land.
Your son’s in Dubai. If he ever wants to sell that share, he can only sell it to a resident Indian, and your NRI will for Indian assets should say so, not leave him to discover it later.” Nikhil hadn’t thought about his son’s situation at all when he wrote that first line — the fix wasn’t complicated, but it needed the will to say so explicitly, so his son wouldn’t discover the restriction the way Nikhil had just discovered it.
NRI Will for Indian Assets: Who’s Actually Going to Walk Into That Bank
Nikhil’s first draft named his son as sole executor — the same person he’d trust with everything at the Dubai company. Ketan pushed back gently. “Your son’s in Dubai too. Who’s going to walk into the Vadodara Sub-Registrar’s office, sit in front of a bank manager, appear in probate court if it ever comes to that? An NRI will for Indian assets is only as useful as the person who can actually act on it inside India.”
Nikhil thought of his younger brother, still in Vadodara, still the one who handled things when their mother was alive — the same brother, in fact, who’d sat across the table from him and their elder brother during the family settlement over the Gotri house years earlier.
Nikhil’s father’s original estate had never been formally divided until the three brothers worked it out themselves; our family settlement agreement guide covers exactly that process for families in a similar position.
He added this brother as a co-executor for the Indian will specifically — someone who could actually be physically present when it mattered, rather than someone who’d have to fly in and hope the timing worked.
There was one more name Nikhil hadn’t thought through: his wife, listed as nominee on his LIC policy. “A nominee isn’t the same as an owner,” Ketan reminded him — the same distinction our Nominee vs Legal Heir guide walks through in detail.
His wife would receive the insurance payout as nominee, but his NRI will for Indian assets still needed to state clearly who the money was ultimately meant for, so nomination and inheritance intent lined up instead of quietly contradicting each other.
NRI Will for Indian Assets: What Nikhil Ended Up With
Three months after that Sunday call with Amit, Nikhil had two coordinated wills instead of one that quietly did neither job well — his UAE will limited to his Dubai business, and a proper NRI will for Indian assets covering the Gotri house, the Alkapuri flat, his mutual funds, both FDs (flagged separately), the LIC policy, and his share of the Padra land, each with the restrictions that actually apply to it spelled out. Attested at the Consulate, stamped within the window, his brother named alongside his son as executor for the Indian side.
For a family like his, spread across Vadodara and Dubai, our estate planning overview for Gujarat families is a useful starting map for the rest of the picture — Will, HUF, trust, gifting, and nomination together.
He called Amit back, mostly to say thanks for the accidental push. Amit was still waiting on his mother’s NRO transfer. “Tell your CA to get you the Form 15CB started now,” Nikhil said. “Don’t wait for the bank to ask.”
NRI Will for Indian Assets: Checklist
- Decide: one worldwide will or a separate NRI will for Indian assets. For most NRIs with assets in more than one country, two coordinated wills work better than one.
- List Indian assets precisely — property survey numbers, MF folio numbers, FD account numbers, policy numbers — not vague descriptions.
- Sign before two independent witnesses who are not beneficiaries under the will.
- Get your NRI will for Indian assets attested at the Indian Consulate if you’re in the UAE or another non-Hague country — an apostille alone won’t be accepted.
- Add an express limitation clause stating this will covers only Indian assets and doesn’t revoke your foreign will, and vice versa.
- Stamp it within 3 months of the original arriving in India if it was executed abroad, even though Gujarat wills are stamp-duty exempt.
- Name an India-capable executor — someone who can physically deal with banks, registrars, and courts in India.
- Flag NRO assets separately — they’ll need Form 15CA/15CB and a tax clearance before heirs abroad can repatriate them.
- Note any agricultural land — heirs can inherit it, but can’t resell it to another NRI, OCI, or foreign national.
This checklist is a starting point, not legal advice. An NRI will for Indian assets, consular attestation, and FEMA compliance all require a lawyer and, where tax or repatriation is involved, a CA.
How SR Wealth Can Help With Your NRI Will for Indian Assets
Shree Radha Financial Services (SR Wealth) is an AMFI Registered Mutual Fund & SIF Distributor and APMI Registered PMS Distributor, working with NRI families across the UAE, UK, USA, Canada, and Malaysia. We are not a legal advisory firm — for will drafting, consular attestation, and FEMA compliance, you need a lawyer and, where repatriation or tax positions are involved, a CA. What we help with:
- Mapping your Indian mutual funds, FDs, and insurance policies clearly enough for your NRI will for Indian assets and your executor to act on without confusion
- Coordinating with your lawyer and CA when a will, an NRO asset, or a property needs cross-border handling
- Referrals to qualified lawyers for NRI will drafting and FEMA-compliant structuring
NRI Will for Indian Assets: Frequently Asked Questions
Does my UAE will cover my Indian assets?
Not automatically, and often not at all. A will drafted under UAE process is meant to speak to UAE-situated assets; Indian immovable property is governed by Indian succession law regardless of where you live. Most NRIs need a separate NRI will for Indian assets, coordinated with their foreign will rather than replacing it.
Do I need to travel to India to make an NRI will for Indian assets?
No. A will can be drafted and signed abroad, as long as it meets the execution requirements under Section 63 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925 — sound mind, voluntary signature, and two independent witnesses.
Is probate mandatory for my Vadodara property?
Generally no. Compulsory probate under Section 213 of the Indian Succession Act applies mainly to property in the old presidency towns — Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata. Gujarat property, including in Vadodara, typically doesn’t require it unless the will is contested.
Can my NRI son inherit my agricultural land?
Yes — inheritance of agricultural land by an NRI doesn’t need RBI approval. The restriction is on resale: your heir can hold it, but can only sell it to a person resident in India who is eligible to hold agricultural land, not to another NRI, OCI, or foreign national.
What happens if I die without an NRI will for Indian assets?
For a Gujarat-domiciled family, Gujarat’s Uniform Civil Code — which extends to Gujaratis living abroad — governs intestate succession, giving sons and daughters equal rights over ancestral and self-acquired property. Our Gujarat UCC inheritance guide covers this in full. It’s a fair default, but it’s India’s answer, not necessarily yours.
Planning Your Own NRI Will for Indian Assets?
Nikhil’s estate looked simple from Dubai — until attestation, a struck-out clause, a stamp duty deadline, and a piece of farmland all turned out to matter differently for different assets. Worth getting the full picture mapped out before anything gets signed.
📞 Call / WhatsApp: +91 98791 13255
📧 Email: shreeradha.services@gmail.com
🌐 Visit: www.srwealth.co.in
📍 Shop 33, Mira Nagar 2, Dindoli Road, Surat 394210
This article is also available on Medium: https://medium.com/@shreeradha.services/why-your-foreign-will-doesnt-cover-your-indian-assets-and-what-actually-does-ebd9fe5b1a2f
Paresh Chaudhary
Founder, Shree Radha Financial Services (SR Wealth), Surat
AMFI Registered Mutual Fund & SIF Distributor — ARN: 268390
APMI Registered PMS Distributor — APRN: 05763
IRDAI Licensed Insurance Distributor
BE Mechanical, SVNIT Surat | Ex-L&T (15+ Years)
Educational Disclaimer: This article is published by Shree Radha Financial Services — an AMFI Registered Mutual Fund & SIF Distributor (ARN: 268390) and APMI Registered PMS Distributor (APRN: 05763), and does not provide legal advisory services. Please consult a qualified lawyer and, where FEMA or tax positions are involved, a CA, for your own NRI will for Indian assets and other estate matters specific to your situation. Regulatory positions referenced are subject to change. The persons and events in this article are illustrative.
