Finance Guide for Indian Newcomers to Canada (2026)

Moving from India to Canada changes your status in both countries at once. Under India’s foreign-exchange law (FEMA) you become a non-resident Indian, which changes the bank accounts and savings schemes you can hold; in Canada you become a tax resident, and the CRA taxes your income from India as well as from Canada. This guide covers what is specific to arriving from India: NRE and NRO accounts, moving money, the tax treaty, and Indian savings, funds and property after you move. The first-year steps every newcomer takes (a SIN, a bank account, a health card, a first return) are in money in Canada for newcomers.

Before you leave India

• Tell your Indian banks you are moving abroad. Once you become a non-resident, resident savings accounts are redesignated as NRO accounts, and an NRE account can be opened for money you earn abroad.
• Have proof of funds ready if your program asks for it. Several immigration programs ask you to show settlement funds; the amounts by family size and what counts as proof are on the proof of funds page.
• Set up a way to move money. Compare transfer services before you need them; see how to transfer money to Canada.
• Gather records of your savings and assets: bank statements, mutual fund statements and property papers, including what each was worth when you left. Canadian banks can ask where a large deposit came from, and the values on arrival set your Canadian cost (see below).

Your first months in Canada

Like an Aadhaar number, the Social Insurance Number is shared only when required; getting a SIN lists the documents. The rest of the order is on the PR checklist, and temporary residents should see finances on a work permit.

Several big banks let Indian newcomers open an account before landing; offers are compared in newcomer bank accounts.

Your Indian bank accounts: NRE and NRO

Interest that India doesn’t tax, such as NRE interest, is still taxable in Canada once you are a resident. Money in an NRE account can be moved out freely. From an NRO account, the Reserve Bank of India lets a non-resident remit up to US$1 million in a financial year, from the account balance or from the sale of assets, with the bank asking for a declaration and Indian tax forms.

Moving money from India to Canada

While you are still resident in India, the Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) lets an individual send up to US$250,000 a year abroad, and remittances above a yearly threshold can have Tax Collected at Source (TCS), which is credited against your Indian tax. After you become a non-resident, transfers come from your NRE and NRO accounts under the rules above.

Wise, Remitly and Western Union all cover rupees to Canadian dollars, and banks send wires; costs differ mostly in the exchange-rate margin, which how to transfer money to Canada explains. For regular payments the other way, to family in India, see the apps for sending money abroad. Keep the paperwork for large transfers (a property sale, a gift from family), since your Canadian bank or the CRA can ask where the money came from.

Canadian tax on your Indian income

From the day you become a Canadian resident, NRO and NRE interest, Indian dividends, rent from a flat in India and gains on Indian assets all go on your Canadian return; how Canada taxes foreign income explains the reporting. Tax already deducted in India, such as TDS on NRO interest, comes off your Canadian tax through the foreign tax credit.

The Canada-India tax treaty decides which country can tax each kind of income and limits Indian tax on some income paid to Canadian residents. Income you earned in India before you became a Canadian resident isn’t taxed in Canada.

Assets you bring with you get a fresh Canadian cost: for most property owned on arrival (shares, mutual funds, property in India), the CRA treats you as having sold and reacquired it at fair market value on your residency date, so only growth after that date is taxed in Canada. Statements or valuations from that date are what prove the figure.

Indian holdings also count toward Form T1135, the CRA’s foreign property return, once their combined cost passes $100,000 at any point in the year. FDs, demat shares, mutual funds and a rented-out flat all count; a home your family lives in is personal-use property and doesn’t.

Canada’s departure tax applies when you leave Canada, not when you arrive, so it isn’t part of your first years here; the rules for a later move are in the tax checklist for leaving Canada. Indian tax on your assets when you leave India is a question for an Indian chartered accountant.

PPF, EPF, NPS and other Indian savings

How Canada taxes payments from Indian pension schemes and provident funds is in foreign pension income. Canada and India also have a social security agreement, in force since August 1, 2015, that can combine periods under India’s Employees’ Pension Scheme with periods in Canada to help you qualify for a pension in either country; OAS and GIS for newcomers explains how these agreements work.

Indian mutual funds are taxed in Canada like other foreign investments: distributions each year, gains when you sell. You may read that they are “PFICs”: the passive foreign investment company rules are a US tax rule for US citizens and green-card holders, not a Canadian one, and they matter only if you are also a US person (tax for US citizens in Canada).

Building Canadian credit

A CIBIL score doesn’t follow you to Canada, where lenders read Equifax and TransUnion files that start empty. Some card issuers will consider an Indian credit report translated through a service that reads it; that route and the usual starter cards are covered in first credit card options for newcomers.

TFSA, RRSP and FHSA

When each account opens to a new resident is on the PR checklist; buying a home is covered on mortgages for newcomers.

Pitfalls specific to moving from India

• Not telling your Indian bank about your move, so a resident account isn’t redesignated as NRO as FEMA requires.
• Assuming NRE interest is tax-free everywhere: it is exempt in India but taxable in Canada.
• Forgetting that Indian FDs and mutual funds count toward T1135, a threshold that a few accounts can cross together.
• No record of asset values on the day you became resident, which leaves you without a Canadian cost base when you sell.

Your first Canadian return reports income from the day you became a resident; how it works is in a newcomer’s first tax return. The guides for newcomers from China and the Philippines cover the same ground for those countries.