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ARTICLE · 12 NOVEMBER 2026

No Flight Home Required: SEBI Opens Fully Digital KYC For NRIs, OCIs And Foreign Nationals

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For a non-resident Indian living in Dubai, London or Singapore, opening a trading or investment account in India through a fully digital process has, until now, run into a simple obstacle. SEBI's KYC Master Circular of 12 October 2023 requires an intermediary to ensure that, during digital KYC, the client is physically located in India. As SEBI itself acknowledges, that requirement in effect prevented a client who was outside India at the time of onboarding from submitting documents and completing KYC digitally.

IndiaTechnology
Pranjal Sehrawat
Pranjal Sehrawat
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For a non-resident Indian living in Dubai, London or Singapore, opening a trading or investment account in India through a fully digital process has, until now, run into a simple obstacle. SEBI's KYC Master Circular of 12 October 2023 requires an intermediary to ensure that, during digital KYC, the client is physically located in India. As SEBI itself acknowledges, that requirement in effect prevented a client who was outside India at the time of onboarding from submitting documents and completing KYC digitally.

By a circular dated 4 November 2026, SEBI has removed that obstacle for individual clients located in countries that are compliant with the standards of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). From 3 December 2026, a SEBI-registered intermediary may accept digital submission of KYC information and documents from a non-resident Indian (NRI), an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) or a foreign national located in such a country, verify the client through video, treat the overseas

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