As an NRI, you can make a will for your flat, land, savings or shares in India and sign it on paper where you live, without a trip home. If you register it with a Sub-Registrar on a later visit to India, it is entered in the register of wills, and no stamp duty is payable.

Your religion decides which Indian rules your will follows: whether it needs two witnesses, whether a later marriage cancels it, and whether a gift to a witness fails.

Where this page sits

If you live in the UAE, the will covering what you own there is the other half of a two-wills plan, and our guides to will registration in Dubai and the cost of making a will in Dubai cover that will.

Related guides:

• NRI tax on inherited property in India
• How to write a will in India, step by step

Which Indian rules does your will follow?

The Indian Succession Act's rules for wills apply to a Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh or Jain through section 57, do not apply to a Muslim, and apply in full to a Christian, Parsi, Jewish or other testator.

How do you make an Indian will where you live?

You sign the Indian will on paper where you live and, unless you are a Muslim, before two witnesses who each sign it in your presence (section 63 of the Indian Succession Act). They need not sign at the same time, and the witnessing needs no particular wording. We advise against using a beneficiary, or a beneficiary's husband or wife, as a witness.

Indian law does not ask for a notary, an apostille, a consulate stamp or an Indian witness on your will, and an Indian embassy or consulate does not register one. The Information Technology Act, 2000, which gives electronic signatures legal effect, does not apply to wills (section 1(4) and the First Schedule), so sign the will by hand.

Why do you need two wills that do not cancel each other?

Because a will made in one country can revoke a will made in the other, an Indian will for an NRI should cover only the assets in India and revoke only earlier wills about them. A separate will made where you live covers the assets there.

Under section 70 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, another will can revoke an Indian will made under the Act's rules, for example by saying that it revokes all earlier wills. In the UAE, Rule 18(1)(a) of the DIFC Wills and Probate Registry Rules allows a later will validly executed anywhere to revoke a DIFC will, expressly or by implication. The DIFC also warns that a will made in another country could invalidate the DIFC will if it is not correctly drafted.

The Consulate General of India in Dubai describes the same plan: a will made in the UAE for UAE assets and a separate will for the Indian property.

Under DIFC Rule 19, a later marriage revokes a DIFC will unless the will shows that you were expecting to marry and did not intend the marriage to revoke it, and under section 69 it revokes the Indian will of a Christian, Parsi, Jewish or other testator. Under the section 57 proviso, a later marriage does not revoke the Indian will of a Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh or Jain, so a Hindu who marries after making both wills can find the DIFC will cancelled while the Indian will stands. We recommend reading both wills again after a wedding.

How do you register and safeguard your Indian will?

A Sub-Registrar in India registers your will by entering it in Book 3, its register of wills. Under sections 51 and 57 of the Registration Act, 1908, anyone may get a signed and sealed copy of the entry after your death, and the copy is admissible to prove the will's contents.

Registration is optional under section 18(e), and sections 23 and 27 set no deadline for it. There is no stamp duty on a will: the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 charges only the instruments in its Schedule I, and a will is not one of them. Each state sets its own fee to register a will: Rs 600 in Delhi, Rs 200 in Karnataka, and in Maharashtra Rs 100 plus a document handling charge of Rs 20 a page.

Even an unregistered later will can revoke a registered one, because under section 62 of the Indian Succession Act you can revoke or alter a will made under its rules at any time while you are competent. While you are alive, section 40(1) of the Registration Act names you as the person who presents the will, at any Registrar or Sub-Registrar, so plan to register it on a visit to India.

Under section 42, you can instead deposit the will with a Registrar in a sealed cover, in person or through a duly authorised agent.

Who can be the executor of your Indian will?

Your executor can live outside India: the Indian Succession Act sets no residence condition for the role. Your executor becomes your legal representative and holds what you leave (section 211), pays funeral costs and debts before any gift (sections 320 and 325), and completes each beneficiary's title by assenting to the gift (section 332). Property passing by survivorship in a Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain or Parsi estate does not vest in the executor, under section 211(2).

Because no beneficiary's title is complete without your executor's assent, name an executor who can act in India, with an alternate, or name WillJini as your executor in India through our Will Executorship service.

Can your children abroad inherit Indian assets?

Your children living abroad as NRIs or OCI cardholders can inherit any flat, house or land in India that you acquired lawfully under India's foreign exchange rules. This includes farmland, farm houses and plantation property, under rule 24(c) of the FEM (Non-debt Instruments) Rules, 2019 and paragraphs 3.1.3 and 3.1.4 of the RBI Master Direction on acquisition and transfer of immovable property.

They can keep inherited farmland, a farm house or plantation property, and if they later sell or gift it, it can go only to a person resident in India. Other inherited property can also go to an NRI or OCI under rule 24. Under rule 24(a), however, an NRI or OCI cannot buy agricultural land.

How does WillJini help NRIs draft their will?

WillJini prepares an NRI will in four steps, and you stay where you are for the first three.

1. A first call at a time that suits you. The booking calendar shows available times in your own time zone.
2. A WillJini lawyer drafts the Indian will. You read it, ask questions and request changes by email or video.
3. You sign it where you live, before two witnesses, following the signing note WillJini sends.
4. If you choose to register it, it is prepared so that one appointment in India is enough.

We also offer mirror wills for a couple living abroad and can keep your original will in our custody through our Will Custodianship service. You have one point of contact from the first call to the signed will. The fee is quoted on the first call.

FAQs

Can an NRI make a will for property in India?

An NRI can make a will for property in India from the country where they live, and under Indian law the will needs no Indian embassy stamp, notary or apostille to be valid.

Can one will cover assets in Dubai and India?

Not reliably, so we recommend a separate will for each country. A DIFC Full Will may include assets outside the UAE, but the DIFC says carrying it out abroad is subject to the law where the assets are and that its enforcement there is not guaranteed. Limit your Indian will to your assets in India and let it revoke only earlier wills about them, because another will can revoke an Indian will made under the Indian Succession Act's rules (section 70), and a later will can revoke a DIFC will (Rule 18(1)(a) of the DIFC Wills and Probate Registry Rules).

Can an NRI inherit agricultural land in India?

An NRI or an OCI cardholder can inherit farmland, a farm house or plantation property in India under rule 24(c) of the FEM (Non-debt Instruments) Rules, 2019, and can later sell or gift it only to a person resident in India.

Do you have to register an NRI will in India?

Registering a will is optional under section 18(e) of the Registration Act, 1908. If you choose to register it, plan it for a visit to India, because section 40(1) names you, while you are alive, as the person who presents it to any Registrar or Sub-Registrar.

Does marriage revoke a will in India?

A later marriage revokes the will of a Christian, Parsi, Jewish or other testator under section 69 of the Indian Succession Act, 1925, but it does not revoke the will of a Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh or Jain testator, under the section 57 proviso.