How do I send money from India to the UAE?

Through your bank, as an outward remittance under RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme. You need the recipient’s name, UAE IBAN and their bank’s SWIFT/BIC; you fill in Form A2 and give your PAN; and the bank converts your rupees and sends the money to the UAE account.

How much money can I send from India to the UAE?

Under LRS, a resident individual can send up to USD 250,000 per financial year (April to March) for permitted purposes, which include maintenance of relatives abroad and gifts. Remittances above ₹10 lakh in a financial year attract TCS.

What are the India to UAE money transfer charges?

The bank’s fee, the exchange-rate margin and any correspondent bank deductions, plus any charge by the recipient’s UAE bank. Above ₹10 lakh in a financial year, the bank also collects TCS: 2% for education or medical treatment and 20% for other purposes. Compare banks on the dirhams that arrive for the same rupee amount.

Can I transfer money from India to the UAE online?

Yes, if your bank offers outward remittances in online banking. The rules are the same as at a branch: the transfer must be for a permitted purpose within your LRS limit, and you still declare it on Form A2 and provide your PAN.

How do I transfer INR to AED?

You pay in rupees and your bank converts them at its exchange rate before sending the money to the UAE account. Ask for the AED amount that will arrive before you confirm, because that figure shows the effect of both the rate and the fee.

Is sending money from India to Dubai different?

No. Banks in Dubai are UAE banks and use the same 23-character UAE IBAN, so the process, rules and recipient details are the same as for anywhere else in the UAE.

How to Transfer Money from India to the UAE

A resident of India can send money to the UAE through a bank authorised to deal in foreign exchange (an “Authorised Dealer”) under the Reserve Bank of India’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS): up to USD 250,000 per financial year (April–March), for permitted purposes that include maintenance of relatives abroad and gifts. You fill in Form A2, give your PAN, and once your LRS remittances pass ₹10 lakh (₹1,000,000) in a financial year, the bank collects tax at source (TCS) on the amount above that threshold.

This guide covers that direction: from India into a UAE bank account. Sending money from the UAE to India has its own guide, linked in the last section.

The rules: LRS, Form A2 and PAN

Outward transfers by residents of India fall under RBI’s Liberalised Remittance Scheme. The points that matter for a transfer to the UAE:

Yearly limit. RBI’s Master Direction says Authorised Dealers “may freely allow remittances by resident individuals up to USD 2,50,000 per Financial Year (April-March) for any permitted current or capital account transaction or a combination of both.”
Purposes. Permitted purposes include maintenance of relatives abroad and gifts, among others. If you are unsure whether your purpose qualifies, ask your bank before you start.
Form A2. “The resident individual seeking to make the remittance should furnish Form A2.”
PAN. “It is mandatory for the resident individual to provide his/her Permanent Account Number (PAN) to make remittance under the Scheme.”

LRS is the scheme for resident individuals. If you are not resident in India and are moving money from an Indian account, ask your bank which rules apply to that account.

TCS: the tax your bank collects above ₹10 lakh

Since 1 April 2026, under the Finance Act 2026, tax is collected at source (TCS) on LRS remittances once the amount, or the total of your amounts, exceeds ₹10 lakh in a financial year:

2% for education or medical treatment.
20% for other purposes, such as maintenance of relatives or a gift.

A hypothetical example: if you send a total of ₹12 lakh through one bank in a financial year to support relatives in the UAE, TCS applies to the ₹2 lakh above the threshold, so 20% of ₹2 lakh is ₹40,000.

TCS is not a bank fee. It is tax the bank collects on behalf of the tax authorities, and it can generally be claimed or adjusted against your income tax. How it works out for you depends on your situation, so confirm it with your bank or a tax adviser before you send, and do not assume you will get it back.

How to send it: step by step

Get the recipient’s details: full name as it appears on their UAE account, their UAE IBAN, and their UAE bank’s SWIFT/BIC (see the next section).
Check that your purpose is permitted under LRS and how much of your USD 250,000 yearly limit you have left.
Start the remittance at your bank. If your bank offers outward remittances in online banking, you can transfer money from India to the UAE online; the same LRS rules, Form A2 and PAN requirement apply.
Review the quote before you confirm: the rupees debited, the exchange rate, the bank’s fee, any TCS, the amount that will be sent, and who pays correspondent bank charges.
Keep the transfer reference, so the bank can trace the payment if it is delayed.

What the recipient in the UAE needs to give you

UAE banks identify accounts by IBAN. The Central Bank of the UAE says customers “must use an IBAN to make and receive international and domestic electronic payments”. Ask the recipient for:

Their full name exactly as it appears on the UAE account.
Their UAE IBAN. It is always 23 characters: “AE”, two check digits, a three-digit bank identifier and a 16-digit account number made up of numbers only. Format example only, not a real account: AE00 1230 0000 0012 3456 789.
The SWIFT/BIC of their UAE bank. Look it up in our UAE bank SWIFT code directory and confirm it with the recipient.

A bank in Dubai, Abu Dhabi or any other emirate uses the same UAE IBAN format, so an India to Dubai money transfer works exactly the same way. Our guides to what an IBAN is and what a SWIFT code is explain both formats.

India to UAE money transfer charges

Each bank sets its own charges, so GulfSend does not publish figures for them. The cost of a transfer can include:

The bank’s fee, shown in its schedule of charges or in the quote.
The exchange-rate margin: the gap between the rate the bank uses to convert your rupees and the mid-market rate. It is a cost even when the fee is zero.
Correspondent bank deductions. A SWIFT payment can pass through intermediary banks, which may deduct charges from the amount sent, depending on the charge option you choose.
The recipient bank’s charge, if it has one; the recipient can ask their UAE bank.
TCS above ₹10 lakh in a financial year, which is a tax, not a fee.

To compare banks, ask each one how many dirhams will arrive for the same amount of rupees, on the same day. That single number captures the fee, the rate and any deductions the bank knows about.

Timing, and what happens when the money arrives

There is no single published time for an India-to-UAE transfer. Use the time your bank quotes, and allow for three things: a SWIFT payment can pass through correspondent banks, each adding time; the UAE federal government’s official weekend has been Saturday and Sunday since 1 January 2022; and whether a UAE bank credits incoming payments at the weekend is up to that bank.

When the payment arrives, it is credited to the account that matches the IBAN. The recipient’s UAE bank may contact them about it, for example to ask its purpose, so the recipient should know the money is coming and why. Moving it on to another UAE bank is a separate domestic transfer; our guide to transferring money between UAE banks covers that.

Sending money the other way: UAE → India

If you live in the UAE and send money to India, our guide to sending money from the UAE to India sets out the fees and limits UAE banks publish, and you can compare options on our AED to INR page. The LRS limit does not apply to that direction: it covers money resident individuals send out of India, not money arriving from the UAE.