Send Money Abroad From India: LRS, Charges and Timelines

Someone you love needs dollars this week — a university's fee deadline, a hospital's advance, a relative's emergency — and the internet answers with ten conflicting screenshots. The truth is that sending money abroad from India is one well-marked road with a few tolls: a scheme (LRS) that sets your annual allowance, a form (A2) that declares your purpose, a code that tells the regulator why the money is moving, and a charge sheet that differs more between channels than between banks. Here is the whole journey, in the order the money actually travels.

The LRS umbrella in one minute

Every route in this article runs under the Reserve Bank of India's Liberalised Remittance Scheme. It allows each resident individual — including minors, through a guardian — to remit up to $250,000 per financial year (April to March) for any permitted current or capital account transaction. The limit is tracked against your PAN across all banks, so ₹3 lakh sent through one bank and a $2,000 forex card load through another draw from the same pool. Unused headroom lapses on 31 March; there is no carry-forward. (Source: RBI Master Direction on Liberalised Remittance Scheme, updated September 2024)

You can remit in any freely convertible currency, as often as you like, until the annual limit is used up. The scheme is personal — corporates, HUFs, trusts and partnership firms cannot use it. Our LRS guide covers the investing side of this scheme in depth; this post is about the spending and support side — education, medical, family maintenance, gifts.

What you can send — and what you cannot

The permitted purposes read like a life checklist: private visits abroad, gifts and donations, employment abroad, emigration, maintenance of close relatives, business trips, medical treatment, and studies abroad. On the capital side, you may open a foreign currency account abroad, buy property or make overseas investments under the Overseas Investment rules, and lend rupees to NRI relatives. (Source: RBI LRS Master Direction; RBI LRS FAQ)

The prohibited list is equally specific. You cannot use LRS to:

• fund margins or margin calls to overseas exchanges or counterparties
• trade in foreign exchange abroad, or buy FCCBs of Indian companies overseas
• pay for lottery tickets, sweepstakes, banned publications or similar items barred under Schedule I of the FEMA rules
• send money to FATF-listed non-cooperative countries or to entities flagged for terrorism financing
• gift foreign currency to another resident for the credit of their foreign account abroad

Your bank is not required to police every transaction — it acts on your Form A2 declaration — but the legal responsibility for compliance sits with you, the remitter, and FEMA penalties for misuse are real. (Source: RBI LRS FAQ, updated 6 April 2023; RBI LRS Master Direction)

Purpose codes: why the S-number matters

Every outward remittance files an RBI purpose code — an S-number from the standard list — that classifies why the money left India. The codes that matter for personal remittances:

Others you may meet: S0023 (formally, opening a foreign currency account abroad with a bank — the code most platforms file when your money credits your own account at a foreign broker), S0001 and S0002 for portfolio investment abroad in equity and debt, S0301 for business travel, and S0306 for other travel including settling international credit card bills. (Source: RBI list of purpose codes for outward remittances, as published through authorised dealer banks)

Why care about a code you do not choose? Because the code drives your TCS rate, your documentation, and the trail the tax department sees. A remittance filed under the wrong code can apply the wrong tax rate and invite a FEMA query; banks correct misfiled codes on request. Our LRS post shows how the wrong code on an investment remittance changes its treatment — the same logic applies here.

Channel 1: the bank wire (SWIFT)

The default channel is a wire transfer through your bank's authorised dealer desk — online through platforms like ICICI's Money2World, or at a branch. Three costs stack up:

1. A flat wire or processing fee. ICICI Bank charges ₹750 plus GST per outward remittance, rising to ₹1,000 plus GST for transfers in USD to the USA, AUD to Australia, GBP to the UK, CAD to Canada and EUR to the euro region. Other banks sit in a similar band — check your bank's schedule.
2. The exchange rate margin. Banks convert your rupees at their own card rate, a markup over the interbank rate. Industry comparisons put typical bank markups at 2-5% over interbank (third-party estimate — BookMyForex's published charge analysis, cross-checked against independent forex writers as on 3 November 2026; no official page publishes bank margins). On large transfers this dwarfs the wire fee.
3. Correspondent charges. International wires often pass through intermediary banks, and depending on the fee arrangement some of their charges can be deducted from the amount that lands. Ask your bank how the fee option is set before the first transfer.

A worked example, illustrative only: you send ₹10 lakh to a US university. The wire fee is ₹1,000 plus GST; the bank's rate margin at 2% costs about ₹20,000; no TCS applies because your year's remittances have not crossed ₹10 lakh. Total cost: roughly ₹21,180 — about 2.1% — with the margin, not the fee, doing most of the damage. That is why the honest comparison between channels is total cost, never the headline wire fee. (Fee figures: ICICI Bank outward remittance FAQs as on 3 November 2026; margin figure labelled illustrative)

Channel 2: online platforms — and the RSP picture, clarified

A cluster of fintech platforms now handles outward remittances through apps, with doorstep documentation and live rates. The regulatory structure here is worth stating precisely, because older guides get it backwards. The Money Transfer Service Scheme (MTSS), under which companies like Western Union operate with RBI-approved Rupee Drawing Arrangements, is for money coming into India — the RBI's own master circular defines it as transferring personal remittances from abroad to beneficiaries in India. It does not carry your money out. (Source: RBI Master Circular on Money Transfer Service Scheme)

For outward personal remittances, the money must move through an Authorised Dealer — an RBI-licensed bank — no matter which app you use. The online platforms you see are interfaces on top of AD banks: they collect your rupees and documents, and the licensed bank executes the FEMA-compliant transfer and files your A2. The same is true of the bank-owned platforms (Money2World is ICICI's own). So the real comparison is not 'bank versus app' — it is which interface gives you a better total rate and less paperwork, with the AD bank's licence underneath either way. One useful lock many platforms offer: a confirmed exchange rate held for a short window while your documents clear — ICICI holds a confirmed rate for two working days before completing the transfer at that rate. (Source: ICICI Bank outward remittance FAQs, 3 November 2026)

Documentation: Form A2 and PAN

Two documents are non-negotiable. PAN is mandatory for every LRS transaction through an authorised person — no PAN, no remittance. And Form A2, the application-cum-declaration, accompanies every purchase of foreign exchange: it captures your details, the beneficiary's bank information (account number, SWIFT code, bank name and address), the amount and currency, and the purpose with its code. By signing it you declare the remittance complies with FEMA and stays within your annual entitlement. (Source: RBI LRS Master Direction, documentation paragraphs)

For capital-account remittances — investments, property — the rules add a step: you designate one bank branch for all such remittances, and if you are a new customer the bank verifies your source of funds through a year's bank statement or your latest tax return. Education and medical remittances are current-account transactions and do not need this designation. Keep every A2 acknowledgment and SWIFT copy in one folder; universities, visa officers and your CA all occasionally ask for the trail.

Timelines: how long each channel takes

Bank wires are faster than their reputation. ICICI processes online requests received before 3:00 PM IST on a working day the same day, with funds typically reaching the beneficiary in one to two working days, subject to the receiving bank's clearance and local holidays. First-time transfers to a new beneficiary take longer while the bank validates the account — and a transaction can pause for document checks if anything is discrepant, which is why uploading clean documents the first time is the single biggest speed-up. Demand drafts — still available for university fees — add courier time on top. Forex card loads, where the 'recipient' is your own card, are usually instant or same-day once your LRS paperwork is on file.

TCS: the tax collected on the way out

Section 206C(1G) makes your bank collect tax at source on LRS remittances. The structure, effective 1 April 2026, prices the purpose:

The Rs 10 lakh threshold is a single combined pool per PAN across all banks, purposes and modes — the first ₹10 lakh of the year carries no TCS whatever the purpose. TCS is an advance collection, not a new tax: it appears in Form 26AS and adjusts against your final tax liability when you file. (Sources: Income Tax Department TCS guidance; HDFC Bank notice on TCS rates effective 1 April 2026, both as on 3 November 2026)

One boundary worth knowing: remittances you make for an overseas tour package already carry TCS collected by the tour seller under the separate tour-package clause, and the bank does not collect it a second time on that remittance. And international credit card spends while you are overseas sit outside LRS entirely — no TCS and no draw on your limit. (Source: Income Tax Department TCS guidance; RBI FAQ on remittance facilities)

Special cases: education, medical and family maintenance

Education gets the gentlest treatment. Banks can remit up to $250,000 for studies without even asking for the foreign university's fee estimate — and can go beyond $250,000 on the strength of an estimate from the institution abroad, without seeking RBI approval. Loan-funded education remittances carry no TCS at all; self-funded ones pay 2% only above the combined ₹10 lakh pool. Documentation is the university's admission letter and fee schedule, your PAN and the A2. (Source: RBI LRS Master Direction; HDFC Bank TCS notice)

Medical remittances follow the same shape: $250,000 released without insisting on a hospital estimate, more on the estimate of a doctor or hospital in India or abroad, plus a separate $250,000 entitlement for a person accompanying the patient as attendant. Emergencies after you have already travelled are also covered — the bank can release funds abroad without prior RBI approval. (Source: RBI LRS Master Direction)

Maintenance of close relatives abroad is a straightforward LRS purpose (code S1301) up to the annual limit — but note its TCS treatment: it falls in the 'any other purpose' bucket, so 20% applies only on the portion of your year's remittances above ₹10 lakh. Families splitting support across several members each have their own limit and threshold, since both run per remitter.

Conclusion

Sending money abroad is a five-part decision: stay within your $250,000 LRS pool, file the right purpose code, compare channels on total cost rather than wire fees, keep the A2 trail, and let the TCS structure — nil to ₹10 lakh, then by purpose — plan your timing. Do those five things and the transfer becomes plumbing: one to two working days, a receipt in your folder, and no surprises on the statement.

This is educational content, not financial or tax advice — confirm charges, rates and documentation with your bank before transferring, and consult a qualified adviser for tax-specific questions.