India

I have not opened an Indian FPI account. Content based on NSDL/CDSL/NSE FPI documentation, SEBI rules, Zerodha’s published foreign-national FPI process, and bank-custodian materials from Axis, HDFC, ICICI. Not yet verified with a custodian.

Short answer

A non-resident, non-Indian citizen cannot open a normal Indian retail demat/trading account. The direct route requires registering as a Foreign Portfolio Investor (FPI) through a Designated Depository Participant (DDP) — typically a major Indian or global custodian bank. The process takes 2–4 months, involves notarized/apostilled documents, a PAN, an SNRR bank account, and a custodian demat before you can trade. No statutory minimum investment exists, but custodians commercially filter out small accounts. For most foreign individuals the right answer is offshore India ETFs or ADRs — not direct FPI registration.

Best practical route

For most foreign individuals: offshore India ETFs (INDA, EPI, FLIN, INDY) or Indian ADRs through any standard Western brokerage account. Clean India equity exposure with zero FPI overhead.

For investors with material capital and a specific reason for direct exchange access (small/mid-cap names, derivatives, tax-jurisdiction optimization):

1. Start with Zerodha’s documented foreign-national FPI process — the most visible retail-friendly individual-FPI broker route
2. Choose a custodian based on existing banking relationships — Standard Chartered or HSBC if you already bank with their international entities; otherwise Axis, HDFC, or ICICI based on RM responsiveness
3. Engage an Indian CA early for PAN application and FATCA/CRS work
4. Budget 2–4 months from first contact to first trade; document apostille/notarization is the dominant time cost

For institutional/family-office accounts: CLSA India, Jefferies India, Morgan Stanley India, J.P. Morgan India are set up for this and will be more responsive than retail-leaning brokers.

Broker options

DDP / custodian (choose this first)

Broker (after custodian is in place)

What you can actually buy

Direct FPI access: NSE-listed and BSE-listed equities (3,000+ companies combined), Indian government bonds, Indian corporate bonds, NSE derivatives (subject to FPI category restrictions).

Offshore vehicles: India-focused ETFs — INDA (iShares MSCI India), EPI (WisdomTree India Earnings), FLIN, INDY; Indian ADRs — HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Infosys, Wipro, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Tata Motors, and others; India-focused mutual funds and closed-end funds.

Tax, documentation & residency friction

The FPI process in sequence:

1. Common Application Form (CAF) submitted through a DDP — initiates FPI registration
2. SEBI FPI registration obtained via the DDP
3. PAN (Permanent Account Number) for Indian tax purposes
4. KYC, FATCA/CRS, and beneficial-owner declarations — intensive for foreign individuals; documents typically require notarization, apostille, or Indian-consulate attestation depending on jurisdiction
5. Indian demat/custody account held with the DDP/custodian
6. SNRR bank account (Special Non-Resident Rupee) or permitted FPI bank/custody account
7. Trading account with a SEBI-registered broker (Zerodha after the above)
8. Fund from overseas and trade

Regulatory costs (modest): Foreign individuals generally qualify as Category II FPI — SEBI fee USD 250 + GST USD 45 = USD 295 total registration fee.

Service-provider costs (the real cost): DDP registration handling fee (one-time, quote-based); custody/demat maintenance (recurring, AUM-linked or flat annual); transaction settlement/custody charges (per trade); SNRR account charges; FX conversion spread; broker commission; Indian CA advisory (recommended). All DDP/custodian pricing is quote-based via RM — no public flat pricing.

Nationality caveat: Pakistani or Bangladeshi nationality or material beneficial ownership from either jurisdiction can trigger additional RBI approval requirements.

Offshore-listed alternatives

If you’re an Indian resident

Everything above is the foreigner’s problem. For a resident Indian it’s the mirror image — the home market is wide open, and going global is a solved problem too.

India itself: open a demat + trading account with any domestic broker — Zerodha (the largest), Dhan, Groww, Upstox, Angel One, Mstock, Kotak, or the bank brokers ICICI Direct and HDFC Securities — with just a PAN, Aadhaar and an Indian bank account. Full access to all 3,000+ NSE/BSE names — the exact thing a foreigner can’t get without the FPI overhead above.

The fees aren’t equal, though, despite the “zero brokerage” marketing. For a buy-and-hold investor doing equity delivery (not intraday), the cheapest all-in are Dhan — zero delivery brokerage and no annual maintenance charge, the genuine standout — and Zerodha (free delivery, small quarterly AMC). Groww and Upstox look cheap but charge per order on delivery; the bank brokers (ICICI Direct, HDFC) cost several times more; and it’s the AMC and DP/depository charges, not the headline brokerage, that quietly add up. (Cost picture from Indian retail comparisons, 2025 — confirm current rates.)

The rest of the world: under the RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS), a resident can remit up to $250,000 per financial year abroad to buy foreign stocks. Two constraints: delivery only — no margin or overseas F&O (RBI bars LRS for margin) — and a 20% TCS above roughly ₹7 lakh/year (it’s collected, then creditable against your income tax; the threshold has been moving, so check the current figure). The routes:

• India-based apps that handle the LRS plumbing + route to the US: INDmoney, Vested, Groww (US stocks), Angel One — they remit under LRS and clear through a US broker-dealer.
• Direct foreign broker: Interactive Brokers onboards Indian residents for global markets (you remit via LRS).
• GIFT City (NSE IFSC): US stocks as unsponsored depository receipts on domestic rails.
• Simplest, no LRS at all: India-listed international ETFs / fund-of-funds (Motilal Oswal Nasdaq 100, Mirae FANG+, and similar) — rupee-denominated, no remittance paperwork, though SEBI’s periodic overseas-investment caps occasionally pause fresh inflows.

The step-by-step is in how to invest in US stocks from India.

Verdict

India is the most administratively burdensome market in this directory. The FPI structure is well-established and remittance works — but the system was built for institutional foreign capital, and retail foreign individuals face an access tier designed for HNW or institutional accounts. The fixed compliance overhead (registration, custody, PAN, tax filing, FX setup) is largely size-insensitive, which makes direct access uneconomic at small portfolio sizes even though no statutory floor exists.

The offshore ETF/ADR alternative is a genuinely clean substitute for ~95% of foreign retail-individual India exposure needs. Direct FPI access is justified only for small/mid-cap targeting, derivatives, or tax-jurisdiction optimization — not for general India equity exposure. The Indian equity market itself is one of the most attractive in the FM/EM universe; the access friction is the only reason this page sits in a frontier-markets-flavored directory.

Sources & dates

Verified personally: not applicable — I have not opened an FPI account or contacted a DDP directly.

Public sources checked:

• NSDL Common Application Form / FPI process documentation
• NSE FPI investor page
• CDSL FPI Standard Operating Procedure (PDF) — Category II fee schedule confirmed here
• RBI non-resident accounts FAQ
• Zerodha foreign national FPI process documentation
• Axis Bank FPI/DDP materials
• HDFC Bank custody/FPI materials
• SEBI FPI regulations