Six legal ways to invest abroad from India.

The Liberalised Remittance Scheme allows up to USD 250,000 per resident per financial year for permitted purposes including overseas investment. Section 206C(1G) of the Income-tax Act levies a 20% TCS on LRS remittances above ₹10 lakh per FY. This TCS is creditable against your final tax liability, not an additional cost.

All three are Indian apps that let you invest in US stocks via the LRS route. Each fronts a US-licensed broker (typically DriveWealth or Apex) and supports fractional shares. They differ in fee structure, currency-conversion spreads, and product breadth (some offer ETFs, fixed income, or robo-portfolios on top of stocks). Compare per-trade fees and FX spreads, not the marketing.

Your US shares are held in custody at the US-licensed broker (such as DriveWealth or Apex), not the Indian app. SIPC covers up to USD 500,000 if the US broker fails (USD 250,000 of that for cash). You can transfer your positions to another broker if the front-end app shuts down.

RBI's industry-wide cap on overseas-ETF investment by Indian AMCs has been frozen since Feb 2022 (USD 1bn fresh, USD 7bn aggregate). AMCs cannot create new units backed by underlying purchases. Demand on Indian exchanges exceeds supply, pushing the market price above iNAV (often 3 to 8%). See the live tracker on the main page for today's number.

An Indian global ETF is exchange-listed (like MON100 on NSE); you buy and sell intraday at the market price, which may differ from iNAV. An Indian global mutual fund (or FoF) is bought from the AMC at end-of-day NAV; no exchange premium, but lump-sum availability is sometimes suspended when the RBI cap fills up.

iNAV (indicative NAV) is the real-time value of an ETF's underlying basket, recomputed every few seconds during market hours. End-of-day NAV is the AMFI-declared value used for mutual-fund accounting. For a listed ETF, the market price can deviate from iNAV (the premium or discount) because supply and demand on the exchange move independently from the underlying.

Usually only as a Non-Resident Indian (NRI). Most UAE and Singapore brokers require residency, employment, or a significant relationship. Resident Indians can still use LRS to fund a direct international broker like Interactive Brokers India from within India.

LRS proceeds can be repatriated back to India through normal banking channels. Foreign assets and income must be disclosed in Schedule FA of your Indian income-tax return. DTAA relief is available for taxes already paid abroad (for example, US dividend withholding under the India US DTAA).

No. These routes are for Indian tax residents. If you're an NRI (including H-1B and OPT holders), you typically open a US brokerage account directly using your visa status; LRS does not apply because you are not remitting from India. Tax treatment shifts based on your residency status under FEMA and the Income-tax Act.