URGENT - Can I buy real estate in India?

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WouldBeCitizen

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Gurus
I am already a US CItizen as some of you may know. I plan to buy some real estate now in India (open plot of land for building a house later or just for investment only - may sell it as is later).

I do not have either dual citizenship/PIO card. My US Passport is current and I have the cancelled Indian passports.

Can I own real estate property on my name now? Or on my wife's name? She is US CItizen too. THAnks in advance.
 
I am sorry to inform that as a U.S. citizen you will not be eligible to own property in India. An Indian citizen can, however, own property in the U.S. You can't have it both ways. It's a little like choosing a bride. Once you have chosen you must forsake the others.
 
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johnnkamala said:
I am sorry to inform that as a U.S. citizen you will not be eligible to own property in India. An Indian citizen can, however, own property in the U.S. You can't have it both ways. It's a little like choosing a bride. Once you have chosen you must forsake the others.
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Who dictates this: The Indian law or the American one?
 
It is better to have a PIO card
It is easy to get it ...within a week.

Why haven't you got one?

But banks will look at your cancelled passport and take a copy of it...to show that you were a person of indian origin

But get a PIO
 
It's dictated by Indian law.

Yes, as dandp said, if you are a person of India Origin and have a PIO card then you can purchase real estate as long as it fits within their regulations (I think for PIO holders, there is a restriction on purchasing a farm land).
 
WouldBeCitizen said:
Gurus
I am already a US CItizen as some of you may know. I plan to buy some real estate now in India (open plot of land for building a house later or just for investment only - may sell it as is later).

I do not have either dual citizenship/PIO card. My US Passport is current and I have the cancelled Indian passports.

Can I own real estate property on my name now? Or on my wife's name? She is US CItizen too. THAnks in advance.
Click to expand...

Get a PIO card.
 
As PIO you cannot buy agricultural land and be prepared to shell out hefty amount in bribes for registration etc.
 
HDFC required only the PIO card loan on a building.
So PIO definitely serves our purpose....

You can inherit agricultural properites but you cannot buy under your name
 
I do not have PIO card

Gurus
I do not have PIO card. It takes time to get those cards. If I had the card I would not have asked the question first case.

Now the timing is important because I have to invest now and may get the PIO card later. I am in USA and talking to my sister to buy it. Can I still buy it on my name and get PIO card later?

The party there takes money now, gives all registration etc materials in 24 months. Will this be OK because in that 24 months I can get my PIO card anyway. Your ideas?
Thanks
 
WouldBeCitizen said:
Gurus
I do not have PIO card. It takes time to get those cards. If I had the card I would not have asked the question first case.

Now the timing is important because I have to invest now and may get the PIO card later. I am in USA and talking to my sister to buy it. Can I still buy it on my name and get PIO card later?

The party there takes money now, gives all registration etc materials in 24 months. Will this be OK because in that 24 months I can get my PIO card anyway. Your ideas?
Thanks
Click to expand...

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/rbi/page4.htm

For the purposes of transactions, i.e., transfer, sale, purchase, etc., dealing with immovable property in India, a person of Indian origin is defined as under:

" an individual (not being a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh or Sri Lanka or Afghanistan or China or Iran or Nepal or Bhutan), who:

(i) at any time, held Indian passport;

or

(ii) who or either of whose father or whose grandfather was a citizen of India by virtue of the Constitution of India or the Citizenship Act, 1955 (57 of 1955). "
 
WouldBeCitizen said:
The party there takes money now, gives all registration etc materials in 24 months. Will this be OK because in that 24 months I can get my PIO card anyway. Your ideas?
Thanks
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I'll be happy to sell you land anywhere you like on that basis. You must be a very trusting individual!
 
I think if you have PIO or something like that, you can buy real estate in India. The only thing you can not buy is Agricultural Land.
 
Option 1:Get a PIO/OIC.
Option 2 .Buy the land in the name of a trustworthy indian citizen relative and then transfer it after you get your PIO/OIC.

Just being a PIO/OIC is not enough.You should have documented proof of the same,especially if you want to take a loan against or develop the property.

And 24 months for registration etc sounds very fishy.You should get it transferred as soon as you pay for it.
 
Gurus-What would happen if I already have property in India and then get US cit-ship?

Gurus,

I already have property (lets say a flat in Delhi) in India prior to US citizenship. After citizenship, would it cause any problems ? Would I need to pay any extra tax, etc ? Can I move back to India for good with US citizenship and live in the propertly ?

Please advice.

Thanks,

Boxerbhai
 
Real Estate!!!

boxerbhai said:
Gurus,

I already have property (lets say a flat in Delhi) in India prior to US citizenship. After citizenship, would it cause any problems ? Would I need to pay any extra tax, etc ? Can I move back to India for good with US citizenship and live in the propertly ?

Please advice.

Thanks,

Boxerbhai
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Hello All,
Can anyone please answer to this above question??
I might be in the similar situation in the near future...
I would like to know all the details before getting citizenship..

waiting for your response...
Lp
 
When you obtained US citizenship you lost Indian Citizenship and all rights of an Indian citizen. You no longer have legal title to your property. This can cause you real problems if any nosey person decides to push it. There are probably many approaches to this problem but what we did is put the land in our brother's name and had a lifetime lease made for the use of the land to us. One problem with this approach is that our children cannot inherit the land, but they want to live in America anyway and have no interest. By Indian law (not US) you can't be both an Indian citizen and an American. By Indian law (not US) you cannot own property in India unless you are an Indian citizen. You really should have looked into these matters before you decided to obtain citizenship in another country but I hope you will find a workable solution. Since you seem a bit naive about legal matters, I suggest that you be very careful who you put your trust in. Many people, even family (especially family in our case), will try to cheat you out of what is yours if there is valuable property involved.
 
lp said:
Hello Johnnkamala..Thanks for your response...I am a little confused by this thread below...Can you please look into this and throw some light..

http://boards.immigrationportal.com/showthread.php?p=1285773&highlight=INDIAN+PROPERTY#post1285773

After you have the american citizenship, according to what mangal969 says, one would have 6 months to get PIO card and still continue to own the property from india...
Click to expand...

I read FAQ at RBI website that even an NRI [who is a citizen of India] is not allowed to buy agriculture/plantation lands.. is it true? I have been thinking that NRI [current citizen of India] are allowed to buy agri/plant lands. Also I dont see anywhere on RBI site that there exist 6months grace period for OCI/PIOs.
 
>Originally Posted by boxerbhai
>Gurus,

>I already have property (lets say a flat in Delhi) in India prior to US >citizenship. After citizenship, would it cause any problems ? Would I need to >pay any extra tax, etc ? Can I move back to India for good with US >citizenship and live in the propertly ?

>Please advice.

>Thanks,

>Boxerbhai

hi LP,
Based on RBI FAQ and my understanding:
You can keep holding onto it if it is residential/commercial property no matter when you bought it. if it is agriculture property, you can still hold onto it if it was bought when you were "resident india". It is illegal to buy agri/plant being an NRI/PIO/OCI.

Someone, Please provide a link where it explains the grace period of 6months for applying PIO or OCI.

Thanks
tagore
 
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