Six routes — stocks & mutual funds (most liquid, lowest minimums), angel investing in startups (highest risk, longest hold), GIFT City IFSC (USD-denominated, no FEMA paperwork), US stocks from India through LRS, property in India (largest ticket, repatriable from NRE), and a weekly live-opportunities feed across all five. FEMA allows all six. The right starting point depends on liquidity, risk appetite and tax residency — not what your relative did.
What we ignore: NFO marketing pitches, "guaranteed return" property launches, pre-revenue startup decks at unicorn valuations, regular-plan distributors, "smart-beta" gimmicks that closet-index Nifty.
0 paid placements. Quarterly editorial audit. Last full review: May 2026.
Banking first, then stocks/MFs. Open NRE + NRO accounts before anything else — every route below depends on having both. Then start with stocks & mutual funds: ₹500 SIPs, daily liquidity, lowest cost to learn India market behaviour without committing capital you can't pull back.
Property only makes sense at ₹50L+ ticket size — below that the transaction cost (registration ~6%, brokerage ~1%) eats too much. Startup angel investing is the last route to add — needs a 10+ deal portfolio for power-law math to work, and you should already have a base portfolio in stocks/MFs first.
Repatriability follows the source of funds, not the asset type.
NRE-funded (foreign income remitted into NRE): fully repatriable when sold. No cap. Property bought from NRE? Sale proceeds repatriable. Stocks bought from NRE via PIS? Same.
NRO-funded (Indian-source income — rent, dividends, inheritance): capped at $1M / financial year by RBI. Even if you sell ₹50 Cr of property in one year, you can only repatriate $1M of it per year.
Plan upfront — once you fund an investment from NRO, it stays NRO-tagged forever.
The PFIC trap. Any non-US pooled investment vehicle (Indian MFs, ETFs, AIFs, ULIPs) is classified by the IRS as a Passive Foreign Investment Company. Default tax treatment is punitive: gains taxed at the highest marginal rate + an interest charge as if you'd accrued the gain evenly each year you held it.
Workarounds: (1) Hold direct equity in your Indian demat — no PFIC. (2) Buy India ETFs on US exchanges (INDA, EPI, SMIN) — same exposure, no PFIC, no Form 8621. (3) GIFT City instruments held in USD — typically not PFIC. (4) QEF election if you want to keep the Indian MF and accept full annual reporting.
No — every route can be opened from abroad. Demat: video KYC + courier docs (7-day onboarding at most brokers). Mutual funds: online KYC at AMC sites. Property: appoint a PoA in India to sign on your behalf. Startup investing: angel platforms onboard NRIs entirely online.
The one exception is some bank-side MF distribution for US/Canada residents — ICICI, HDFC, SBI, Axis require an in-person India visit to activate MF investing post-2022. Kotak Mahindra is the workaround — fully online including for US/Canada NRIs.