NRI property law covers four recurring problems: authenticating documents like a Power of Attorney from abroad, buying or selling property in India as a non-resident, handling inherited or ancestral property, and moving sale proceeds out of India legally under FEMA. The core Indian-law obligations — the Registration Act 1908, the Income Tax Act's Section 195 TDS rules, and FEMA's repatriation limits — apply the same way regardless of which country an NRI lives in. What differs by country is how documents get authenticated for use in India and which bilateral tax treaty applies to relief against double taxation.
| Country of Residence | POA Authentication Method | Applicable Tax Treaty | Typical Repatriation Route |
|---|
| USA | Notarization + Apostille (Hague Convention member since 1981) | India–USA DTAA | NRO account → Form 15CA/15CB → authorized dealer bank |
| UK | Notarization + Apostille (Hague Convention member since 1965) | India–UK DTAA | NRO account → Form 15CA/15CB → authorized dealer bank |
| Canada | Notarization + Apostille (Hague Convention member since January 2024) | India–Canada DTAA | NRO account → Form 15CA/15CB → authorized dealer bank |
| Australia | Notarization + Apostille via DFAT (Hague Convention member since 1995) | India–Australia DTAA | NRO account → Form 15CA/15CB → authorized dealer bank |
| UAE | Notarization + MOFA attestation + Indian Embassy attestation (NOT a Hague Convention member — no apostille route) | India–UAE DTAA (limited relevance — UAE has no personal income tax) | NRO account → Form 15CA/15CB → authorized dealer bank |
Most NRI destination countries are Hague Apostille Convention members, so a single apostille — rather than multi-step consular legalization — is enough to make a POA usable in India. The UAE is the clear exception among this platform's currently covered countries: since it has not joined the Convention, a POA executed there still requires the older legalization chain (MOFA attestation, then Indian Embassy attestation). This is exactly the kind of country-specific difference that gets missed by content written generically for "NRIs" without checking each country's actual treaty status — and it's the single most common point of confusion NRIs run into regardless of country: a POA that is merely notarized, without the correct next step for that specific country, is not sufficient for use in most Indian property transactions.
