Investing in Indian mutual funds from the USA or Canada

This deserves its own section rather than a footnote, because for a large share of NRIs it is the whole question.

The Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) requires financial institutions to report accounts held by US persons to the US authorities, and similar reporting reaches Canadian residents. Meeting that obligation costs an Indian fund house time and money, and many have decided the volume of US and Canada NRI business does not justify it. So they decline those two countries outright. Others accept them, but only on paper forms submitted in person or by post — not through their websites or apps.

The practical consequence: a US or Canada NRI can usually still invest, but through a narrower door, and often an offline one. H2 Investment handles that offline route for the United States and Canada, and works with NRIs in Australia as well. We will tell you honestly at the outset which fund houses are currently open to your country of residence, and we will not pretend the online path exists when it does not.

Two caveats we would rather you hear from us than discover later. First, the set of AMCs that accept US and Canada residents genuinely does change, so we confirm it at the time you apply rather than quoting a fixed list. Second, US and Canada residents carry their own home-country tax and reporting obligations on foreign investments (PFIC rules in the US, for example) — those are real, they are specific to you, and they are a matter for a tax adviser in your country of residence, not for us. More on that under tax.

The paperwork for the offline route is covered in NRI KYC and the FATCA declaration, and how tax is collected in TDS for NRIs.