You became an NRI. Half of what you hold has changed status.

You cannot open a new PPF account as an NRI. An account opened while you were resident can be continued, and contributions made, until it matures at fifteen years — but it cannot be extended in five-year blocks the way a resident can extend one, and it has to be closed at maturity. Premature closure is possible with a penalty. The practical planning point is that the account has an end date now, so decide in advance where the money goes rather than discovering it at maturity.

Yes. The National Pension System is open to non-resident Indians, which is why it is the usual answer for someone whose PPF has become a closed-ended holding. Contributions come from an NRE or NRO account and the account continues if you later change status. Whether the deduction is worth anything to you depends on whether you have Indian taxable income to set it against, which for many NRIs is the real question rather than eligibility.

Because there are two definitions and they do not agree. Under the income tax law your status is decided by counting days of physical presence in India in the year, with the thresholds set out in the Act — it is arithmetic, applied after the year ends. Under the exchange control law it turns on whether you have gone abroad, or come to India, for employment, business or an uncertain period, so intention and purpose matter and status can change the day you leave. The consequence is real: you can be a non-resident for exchange control while still resident for tax, or the reverse, and the two decide different things — which accounts you may hold on one side, and what income is taxable on the other. Anyone answering "NRI status" without saying which law they mean is answering half the question.

No. The RBI floating rate savings bonds are not open to non-residents, and neither are the small savings certificates. What is available to an NRI is government securities and treasury bills through the permitted routes, corporate bonds and debentures subject to the applicable limits, and bank deposits in NRE, NRO or FCNR form. The NRE and FCNR routes are the ones that keep the money repatriable, which for most people matters more than the yield difference.

Yes. An NRI holding a valid Indian passport can apply for Aadhaar, and the residence waiting period that applies to foreign nationals does not apply. It is optional rather than required, and NRIs are outside the mandatory Aadhaar-PAN linking obligation — so not having one is not a compliance failure. It is worth having where you deal with Indian banks or portals regularly, and irrelevant otherwise.

Yes, through the Portfolio Investment Scheme, which runs through a designated account with an authorised dealer bank. Investment routed through an NRE account is repatriable; through an NRO account it is not, and that is fixed at the time of investment rather than chosen later. There are per-investor and aggregate limits on holdings in a single company. Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds are also available, though some fund houses decline subscriptions from residents of the United States and Canada for their own reporting reasons rather than because Indian law prevents it.

National Savings Certificates, Kisan Vikas Patra, the Senior Citizens Savings Scheme and Sukanya Samriddhi are not open to non-residents. Where you held one as a resident and then changed status, the position varies by scheme and some have to be closed — which is exactly the sort of thing that goes unnoticed for years and then complicates a maturity or a repatriation. Worth checking once rather than assuming.

No, and this is answered wrongly in a great deal of published material. Both presumptive schemes are restricted to a resident individual, a resident Hindu undivided family or a resident partnership firm. A non-resident is outside both of them. So an NRI with Indian professional or business income cannot declare a fixed percentage of receipts and skip the books — actual income has to be computed, with the records to support it, and audit thresholds apply in the normal way. If somebody has filed presumptive returns for you while you were non-resident, that is worth looking at.

Residential and commercial property, yes, without any special permission. Agricultural land, plantation property and farmhouses cannot be purchased by an NRI or an overseas citizen, although they can be inherited and can be held if they were acquired while you were resident. Payment must come through banking channels from abroad or from an NRE, NRO or FCNR account — not in cash and not from a traveller's cheque. On a later sale, whether the proceeds can leave India depends on which account the purchase money came from.

It cannot stay as it is. A resident savings account has to be re-designated as an NRO account once your status changes, and continuing to operate it as a resident account is a breach rather than an oversight. Alongside it, an NRE account holds money remitted from abroad and is fully repatriable, while an NRO account holds Indian income and is not, beyond the permitted annual limit. Which account money sits in decides whether it can ever leave, so the distinction matters more than the interest rate.

Only on a non-repatriation basis, and even then with conditions — the firm must not be engaged in agricultural or plantation activity, real estate business or print media. The money invested and the returns stay in India. Because of that, and because neither form gives limited liability or a separate legal identity, a company or an LLP is usually the right structure for an NRI who wants a business in India rather than a passive interest in one.

Tax on Indian-source income only — rent, capital gains, interest, dividends, and any income from a business or profession carried on here. The rates are the ordinary ones, but withholding on payments to a non-resident is generally at a higher rate and on the gross amount, so the tax deducted often exceeds the final liability and a return has to be filed to recover the difference. Treaty relief is available where your country has an agreement with India, on producing a tax residency certificate and the prescribed declaration, now Form 41.