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PAN ID for no-citizens from abroad

Usually when you have no taxable income in India or expectation of one then PAN ID is not needed for non-Indian citizens.

However, recent (2014) RBI regulations make sense to get PAN ID in some sitiuation for some non-citizens.

Form 49AA is the one to be used for this purpose. Two quasi(?) Govt agencies UTISIL and NSDL have online web page to take applications.

Has this online route worked for any non-citizens from abroad? Any data points? (Web applications dont always work but when they do work, it seems payment step is difficult to get past)

Appreciate if anyone else has any sucessful experience (non-citizen applying from abroad)

my firm has helped a few clients get the pan id recently....the process is pretty straightforward as you mentioned....just fill the online form from either utisil or nsdl....the whole process takes about 3-4 weeks....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keyser (Post 27657059)

It seems to be usually pretty efficient. If applying from outside of India and only having an address outside of India, then it take a bit longer than for non-Indians resident in India.

How does one make a payment?

UTISTIL requires payment step to be completed online and receive sucessful acceptance code of the payment which is included on web page for you to print and afix photographs. For payment, UTISTIL presents choice of two services - billdesk and PayU. The former fails at credit card processing step without any message while PayU is nice enough to tell you that payment processing is failed because they only accept India based credit card. (Quora and Wikipedia search seem to confirm this)

NSDL web site crashes way too much but when it works, credit card step fails silently but it does seem to allow to enter number of rupee demand draft. Banks in US (Wells Fargo, Chase, BoA) seem to have suspended dealing in INR (not just cash exchange but even issuance of demand draft) temporarily (strange)).

is there a viable solution?
(no address or bank account or credit card in India available to use)

Quote:

Originally Posted by desi (Post 27659369)

is there a viable solution?
(no address or bank account or credit card in India available to use)

Hire a lawyer in India to do it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by desi (Post 27659369)

I had to have a relative in India pay. My credit card did not work.

I've mailed in all the application info and will report back.

I used my German Master Card without issues at NDSL. The proof of address turned out to be rather annoying as my bank in Germany didn't have my middle name.

So PAN update applied for: May 9
Docs received May 24
May 28:

Quote:

Out of two photographs, the photo to be affixed with signature/ thumb impression across this photo has not been provided.

We request you to kindly submit recent colour photograph (3.5 cm *2.5 cm) on a separate paper with signature/thumb impression across this photograph.

Name mentioned in Proof of Communication Address does not contain middle name as mentioned in application.

Submit proof of address where name in application exactly matches with name in proof.

New docs received Jun 14
Jun 17:

Quote:

Name mentioned in Proof of Communication Address does not contain middle name as mentioned in application.

Submit proof of address where name in application exactly matches with name in proof.

Oct 21: new docs received (I procrastinated there and bombarded them with HDFC Bank statements, OCI card copies etc in a big submission)

Oct 24:

Quote:

With regard to verification of your abovementioned application and PAN application documents, we would like to inform you that the documents received on October 21, 2016, are found to be in order during preliminary verification.

Application data for PAN xxxxxxxx will be compared with Income Tax Department's database.

Discrepancies, if any, observed during the aforesaid verification of PAN data will be informed to you separately."

The new PAN card showed up in the snail mail sometime in November by EMS Speedpost in Germany. ^

I always sent in the docs by registered mail.

•We request you to kindly submit recent colour photograph (3.5 cm *2.5 cm) on a separate paper with signature/thumb impression across this photograph

What exactly "signature across the photograoh" mean?
a) entire signature on the photo
or
b) some on the photo and some on the form

Useful to know that German credit card worked.

Quote:

Originally Posted by desi (Post 27705637)

Some on the photo and some on the form.

Thanks for DP.

How long did the process take from mailing?
Did you use NDSL or UTISTIL site?
Was PAN id available to write down online before receiving the card?

TIA

Datapoint:
Documents received by them but on line status not updated.
Call center - "We most likely misplaced documents, sir. Please apply again after few days".

(BTW, UTIISTL finally put up a message on their website that they are aware that it is not working properly)

More details

International Credit Cards ARE accepted except that at any point either the website of the agency or that of vendor processing payment may be malfunctioning and you may get a silent failure.

Also, the online status gets updated 10-15 days after the fact.

Online status remain in preprocessing even after PAN ID number was already issued and it changed to "IT department processing" after actual card was already delivered in US by registered post. Ten days after the delivery of the card, it changed to we have dispatched your card. So basically, online update is running on 10-15 days delay basis.