Where do you stand — NRI, RNOR, or Resident?
Residential status under Section 6 of the Income Tax Act, 2025 is worked out fresh each year from your actual travel history, citizenship, and income — there's no application or certificate. Work through your own numbers below; the full explanation of every rule used is further down the page.
Now work through your own numbers
Answer the three steps below in order — each one feeds the next.
Your citizenship / status
This year's residency test
Residency history — last 10 financial years
Enter days spent in India for each of the 10 financial years preceding the year selected in Step 2. Columns are labeled with real years below, so there's no ambiguity about which year is which. This drives the "9 of 10 years," "729 days in 7 years," and the 4-year lookback in Step 2.
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How the rules behind this calculator actually work
Every test, threshold, and definition used above, explained in full.
The three statuses, and what each one taxes
Every financial year, you land in exactly one of three categories. Which one determines the scope of what India can tax — not your passport, not your intentions, just this year's facts.
| Status | What India taxes |
|---|---|
| Non-Resident (NRI) | Only income earned or received in India. |
| RNOR | Indian income, plus foreign income only if from a business controlled from India or a profession set up in India. Other foreign income (salary, interest, dividends, foreign capital gains) stays outside Indian tax. |
| ROR (ordinarily resident) | Worldwide income, subject to DTAA relief where applicable. |
Step 1 — Are you a Resident at all?
You're a Resident if any one of these three tests is met. Note the 182-day test is a complete, standalone test — it doesn't need the 4-year lookback at all, and if it's satisfied you never need to check the alternative test.
| Test | Condition |
|---|---|
| A — 182-day rule | 182+ days in India this financial year alone. Resident, full stop — no other test needed. |
| B — Alternative test | Day-count threshold this year (see table below, depends on citizenship/income) AND 365+ days in India over the preceding 4 years. Both legs must be true together. |
| C — Deemed residency | Indian citizen, ₹15 lakh+ Indian-source income, not liable to tax in any other country → deemed Resident regardless of days in India (even zero). Lands you in RNOR, not ROR — see callout below. |
Test B's day-count threshold depends on who you are:
| Category | Alternative-test threshold |
|---|---|
| Foreign national, no Indian origin | 60 days (standard, no relief) |
| Indian citizen / OCI / PIO, visiting, Indian income ≤ ₹15 lakh | 182 days (Test B effectively disappears) |
| Indian citizen / OCI / PIO, visiting, Indian income > ₹15 lakh | 120 days |
| Indian citizen leaving India for employment abroad, or ship crew | 182 days (regardless of income — separate relief provision) |
Both the day of arrival and the day of departure count as full days present in India — inclusive at both ends, regardless of the time of day. Read the official guidelines on the Income Tax Department portal ↗
Step 2 — If you're a Resident, are you RNOR or ROR?
You qualify for RNOR (the lighter-tax transitional status) if either of these is true:
- You were a Non-Resident in 9 of the preceding 10 financial years, or
- You were physically present in India for 729 days or less during the preceding 7 financial years.
Fail both, and you become a full ROR instead, taxed on worldwide income. Most returning NRIs hold RNOR status for 1–3 years after coming back — arriving in the second half of the financial year (October–March) often stretches this window closer to three years, since a partial first year keeps you further from the 729-day threshold for longer.
Citizenship, OCI, and PIO — the definitions that decide which row applies
Indian citizen
Governed by the Citizenship Act, 1955. Not the same as holding an Indian passport — the passport is evidence, not the test.
- India does not permit dual citizenship. Voluntarily acquiring a foreign citizenship automatically ends Indian citizenship by operation of law, at the moment of naturalization — not when the passport is surrendered.
- Someone naturalized as a US citizen who never formally surrendered their Indian passport is, legally, already not an Indian citizen — and should be treated as OCI/foreign for this analysis.
PIO (Person of Indian Origin)
Historically: a foreign citizen (excluding Pakistan/Bangladesh nationals) who held an Indian passport at any time, or had an Indian-citizen parent/grandparent/great-grandparent, or is the spouse of an Indian citizen or PIO.
- The PIO scheme was abolished on 9 January 2015 and merged into OCI.
- As of 1 January 2026, India stopped accepting physical PIO cards at border checkpoints. Unconverted PIO cardholders now need a regular Indian visa to enter. Being "deemed OCI" since 2015 does not itself produce a physical, usable OCI card — conversion is a separate formal application.
OCI (Overseas Citizen of India)
A foreign national registered under Section 7A of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2015 — broadly, someone who was an Indian citizen (or eligible to be one) on or after 26 January 1950, now holding foreign citizenship.
- Anyone who has ever held Pakistani or Bangladeshi citizenship is not eligible.
- OCI is not citizenship — cannot vote, cannot hold constitutional posts or government employment, cannot buy agricultural land or farmhouses. It's a lifelong multi-entry visa-equivalent status with NRI-like financial/economic parity.
Why this matters for the calculator
Your citizenship/status selection below drives two separate things:
- Which day-count threshold applies in Test B (60 / 120 / 182).
- Whether the deemed-residency rule (Test C) can apply to you at all — only real Indian citizens are exposed to it.