Can You Open a Joint NRE or NRO account (savings and fixed deposit)?

Yes, you can open a joint NRE or NRO savings, current or fixed deposit and FCNR fixed deposit account, but who you can use as joining partner depends on upon what type of account you are opening and citizenship of other account holders. For example, if you are opening an NRO (Non Resident Ordinary) savings, fixed deposit or current account then you can open it jointly with any resident Indian or NRI. It means you can open NRO account jointly with your parents, spouse or your siblings, of course, if they are staying in India or any NRI e.g. your wife and children which are staying abroad with you.

NRO is the most flexible in terms of citizenship of joint account holders. Other two, NRE and FCNR are more restricted then NRO. You can only open a joint NRE account with non-resident Indians, jointly opening NRE account with resident Indians are not allowed. Same is true for FCNR fixed deposits, which can only be open jointly with another NRI. There are several benefits of opening joint account be it NRE or NRO, and it goes a long way in your financial planning. You will see the true benefits of opening a joint account in next section.

Let's see some frequently asked questions related to opening NRI accounts jointly



Can I open NRE account jointly with my parents which are not NRI?
No, you can only open NRE account, both saving and fixed deposit, only with another NRI e.g. your wife of children if they are staying abroad.


Can I open NRO account jointly with resident Indians?
Yes, NRO accounts both saving and fixed deposit can be opened with resident Indians e.g. parents, brothers, sisters and spouse if she is staying in Indian.


Can I open FCNR fixed deposit with resident Indian?
No, similar to NRE fixed deposit, FCNR can only be opened with another NRI.



Why you should open a joint NRE or NRO account?

There are many benefits of opening a joint account be it NRE, NRO, FCNR or even simple resident account, but I strongly advise to open joint accounts only with your immediate family member e.g. your wife or your parents. 

Why? because if a joint account is opened as operate independently then any of the account holders can withdraw money without the permission of other account holders. This is actually both benefit and risk. Since mostly you want this flexibility so that you or your family member can operate NRE accounts independently.

BTW, you can also open a joint account which requires the signature of both account holder to withdraw money. This means both account holder must be physically present if you are withdrawing money from the branch or accessing locker facility.


If your parents are staying in India and you are staying abroad then you can open joint NRO account with them. You can operate the account online from your office and home abroad and your parents can withdraw money in their own city, whenever they need. They don't need to depend on upon your physical presence at the need of the hour, as long as money is concern.

NRI joint accounts also provide extreme flexibility in case of unforeseen and something unfortunate happened to you. If you have a joint account with your wife then rest assured that they will have access to money no matter what.


Unfortunately, many people don't pay enough attention to the nomination and opening joint account but that's very important because there is a lot of hassle involved in claiming money from a bank account which doesn't have a nomination or joint account holder.


You can also open NRE saving account/fixed deposit from over 200 countries including USA, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Doha, Dubai, Europe, Australia and Canada. Just follow these simple steps,

You can open NRE or NRO account jointly with Indians


The above steps are for opening ICICI bank NRE/NRO account/fixed deposit but most of the banks including SBI, Axis, and Yes bank have more or less the same procedure.

So make sure you open an NRO account jointly with your wife and an NRO account jointly with your parents. Of course, it's a personal choice but the joint account has more flexibility than a single operating account. Remember, you can open an NRO account jointly with both resident and non-resident, but NRE and FCNR fixed deposit can only be opened jointly with another NRI.



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