How to file an FBAR for Indian bank accounts: step by step (2026)

Who has to file an FBAR for Indian accounts?

You have to file if you are a "United States person" and your foreign accounts added up to more than $10,000 on any single day of the calendar year. FinCEN defines a US person as US citizens, green card holders, and anyone who is a US tax resident under the substantial presence test — the FBAR regulations point to the same residency tests in 26 U.S.C. 7701(b) (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, p. 5).

For an Indian tech professional in the US, this usually means every year from the year you pass SPT (most H-1B holders in year one of a full year here, F-1 students only after their five calendar years of exempt status, L-1 and green card holders from day one of residency).

The FBAR covers more than a savings account. FinCEN's own definition of a "financial account" explicitly includes "a securities, brokerage, savings, demand, checking, deposit, time deposit, or other account… a commodity futures or options account, an insurance policy with a cash value (such as a whole life insurance policy), an annuity policy with a cash value, and shares in a mutual fund or similar pooled fund" (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, p. 4).

For Indian accounts, that means you include:

• NRE and NRO savings accounts.
• Fixed deposits in India (each FD is its own account).
• Demat and broker accounts (Zerodha, Groww, ICICI Direct).
• Indian mutual funds held directly with the AMC or through a platform.
• LIC and other Indian insurance policies that have a cash surrender value (traditional endowment, ULIPs). Pure term plans do not have cash value, so they are excluded.
• PPF (Public Provident Fund) accounts held at an Indian bank or post office — these generally fit FinCEN's broad definition of a deposit/time-deposit financial account, so most practitioners treat them as reportable; FinCEN has not published PPF-specific guidance.

An IRA holding a foreign account is exempt, but your personal Indian accounts are not (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, p. 7).

If you share any of these accounts with your parents in India, you have a joint account and you must report it. For a different question — who exactly counts as a US person and what the Form 8938 rules add on top — see our FBAR and Form 8938 for Indian accounts guide.

How do I know if I crossed the $10,000 threshold?

The threshold is any day, not year-end. "If the maximum account value of a single account or aggregate of the maximum account values of multiple accounts exceeds $10,000, an FBAR must be filed" (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, p. 10).

A worked example: your NRE savings had a peak of ₹4,00,000 in July when your Indian salary came in, your NRO had a peak of ₹2,50,000 in March when rent income accumulated, and you had two FDs of ₹2,00,000 each on 31 December. At the Treasury's end-of-year rate of ₹85.00 to the dollar (illustrative; use the actual published rate), those four peak values total ₹10,50,000, or about $12,353. You crossed the threshold and you file.

Note two traps:

• You do not net the accounts against each other. If one FD matures and the money moves into the savings account, FinCEN's method is to take the peak of each account on its own and add them, which can double-count the same money. The IRS and FinCEN accept that this is how the rule works.
• A joint owner reports the whole account at full value. If you share an NRE account with your spouse and the peak was $9,000, you each file for a $9,000 account; neither of you files for $4,500 (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, Part III).

What is FinCEN Form 114 and where do I file it?

FinCEN Form 114 is the only form used for the FBAR. "The FBAR must be filed electronically through FinCEN's BSA E-Filing System" at bsaefiling.fincen.gov (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, p. 8).

Individuals have two filing paths on that site:

1. Online FBAR (no registration). You open the form in your browser, fill it in, electronically sign and submit. "Individuals do not have to register to file an FBAR" (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, p. 12). This is what nearly every NRI uses.
2. PDF FBAR. You download the PDF, fill it offline in Adobe Reader, then upload it. Useful if your internet is unreliable or your Adobe plug-in is required for your work.

There is no fee. There is no paper filing option for individuals. Email filing is not allowed.

Step by step: filing your FBAR for Indian accounts

Before you open the website, pull one statement per Indian account that covers each month of the calendar year. For NRE and NRO this is the monthly bank statement. For FDs, the certificate or the FD advice page in net banking is enough. For demat, your broker's annual CAS (Consolidated Account Statement) is cleanest. For mutual funds, the CAMS or KFintech CAS. For LIC, the policy anniversary statement.

Step 1. Find the maximum balance of each account. "The maximum value of an account is a reasonable approximation of the greatest value of currency or nonmonetary assets in the account during the calendar year. Periodic account statements may be relied on" (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, p. 9). For bank accounts, scan each monthly statement for the highest end-of-day balance. For FDs, use the maturity value (principal plus accrued interest at the point it was highest).

Step 2. Convert each maximum value to USD. "In the case of non-United States currency, convert the maximum account value for each account into United States dollars. Convert foreign currency by using the Treasury's Financial Management Service rate… for the last day of the calendar year" (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, p. 9). The old "Financial Management Service" is now the Bureau of the Fiscal Service; the same rates are published as the Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange. Use the December 31 (year-end) rate for the year you are reporting. Round each account up to the next whole dollar: FinCEN's example is "$15,265.25 would be recorded as $15,266" (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, p. 9).

Step 3. Open the online form. Go to bsaefiling.fincen.gov and choose to file an individual FBAR (no registration). On the first (header) page, give the report a filing name you will recognise, for example "FBAR 2025 — Rahul Shah". Select "New report" for a first-time filing of that year; select "Amendment" only if you are correcting a previously accepted FBAR. If you are late and filing after October 15, pick a reason from the drop-down (for example "did not know I had to file"); if nothing fits, choose Other and write one sentence explaining why (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, p. 13).

Step 4. Enter Part I (filer information). Item 1 is the calendar year, in YYYY format. In Item 2, "Individuals, including those reporting only signature authority, should check box 'a'" (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, p. 15). In Item 3, enter your SSN or ITIN as a continuous number string, no hyphens. Date of birth is MM/DD/YYYY. In Items 9-13, "An individual residing in the United States must enter the street address of the individual's United States residence not a post office box" (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, p. 15).

Step 5. Enter each separately owned account in Part II. For each account you own alone, click to add a Part II entry. Item 15 is the USD maximum value you calculated in Step 2. Item 16 is the type of account — bank for NRE/NRO/FD/PPF, securities for demat and broker accounts, Other for a cash-value LIC policy (type "insurance policy with cash value"). Items 17-23 are the bank name and its full Indian address with the country code IN.

Step 6. Enter each jointly owned account in Part III. For a joint NRE/NRO with your spouse or parent, add a Part III entry per joint account. Enter the full maximum value in Item 15, not half: "Each joint owner must report the entire value of the account as determined under Item 15" (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, p. 18). In Items 25-33, give the principal joint owner's details (your spouse's SSN/ITIN, or your father's Indian passport number if he has no US TIN).

Step 7. Skip Part IV unless you have signature-only accounts. Part IV is for accounts where you can sign but have no financial interest — typically an employer's foreign account. For personal NRE/NRO/FDs where you are the account holder, leave Part IV blank.

Step 8. Sign and submit. Return to the header/cover page. Validate the report. Save a copy as PDF for your records. Click to electronically sign and submit; the FBAR "is considered signed by the filer when electronically signed on the header/cover page" (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, p. 21). You will receive a BSA Identifier by email within a few minutes; keep this number — you will need it if you ever amend the report.

Deadline, extension and late filing

The FBAR is "an annual report, due April 15 following the calendar year reported" (IRS FBAR page). "You're allowed an automatic extension to October 15 if you fail to meet the FBAR annual due date of April 15" (IRS FBAR page). You do not file any extension form; the extension is automatic.

If you miss October 15, you can still file. The online form lets you pick a reason from a drop-down for late filing. If you reported the underlying India income on your US return (NRE interest, FD interest, dividends), filing late with a short reasonable-cause explanation is the lightest path. If you did not report the income, filing a late FBAR alone is not enough — you need to amend the tax return too, and depending on how many years are open you may need the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures. We cover the choice in detail in our delinquent FBAR for prior years guide. Note: the IRS no longer maintains a dedicated Delinquent FBAR Submission Procedures page — confirm current catch-up options on the IRS FBAR page before choosing a path.

How much does it cost to file an FBAR?

The $0 DIY path is a real option; FinCEN explicitly tells individuals they do not need to register and run the whole thing online. The paid paths exist because of the data-entry work (one Part II or Part III per account) and because getting signature-authority accounts, joint ownership and spouse elections right is where mistakes get expensive.

For most Indian tech professionals filing their first FBAR with two to five accounts, self-filing takes about an hour once the statements are in a folder.

Common mistakes NRIs make on the FBAR

• Using the current RBI rate instead of the Treasury end-of-year rate. FinCEN's instruction is explicit: use "the Treasury's Financial Management Service rate… for the last day of the calendar year" (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, p. 9).
• Reporting your share of a joint account. You report the full value, every time.
• Forgetting Indian mutual funds and demat accounts. "Shares in a mutual fund or similar pooled fund" are explicitly in scope (FinCEN Line Item Instructions, p. 4).
• Omitting PPF because "it's a government scheme". PPF is maintained by a bank or post office and fits FinCEN's broad deposit-account definition; most practitioners treat it as reportable.
• Treating a term life policy as reportable. Pure term plans with no cash surrender value are not financial accounts; cash-value LIC and ULIPs are.
• Filing only the FBAR when the income was never reported. See NRI India income on a US return for the amendment side.