Bhutan shares one of India's closest bilateral relationships, formalized in the 1949 Treaty of Perpetual Peace and Friendship (revised 2007) -- yet Bhutan is not a Hague Apostille Convention member, so a Power of Attorney executed in Bhutan for use on Indian property still requires a three-step legalization chain. Indian nationals enter Bhutan on a distinctive entry permit rather than a visa, but this is not the same as Nepal's fully open border. The Indian community is estimated at roughly 50,000 (per MEA's November 2025 bilateral brief), concentrated in infrastructure, hydropower, and education. Legal questions that reach back into India -- property, succession, taxation -- apply the same underlying Indian law regardless of country of residence, alongside Bhutan-specific realities such as its strict, citizenship-based restriction on land ownership by non-Bhutanese (with no confirmed India-specific exception) and its Gross National Happiness framework embedded directly into investment screening. Seven dedicated Bhutan guides are live below.
