Aadhaar for NRI and OCI holders in Australia: who can enrol and what it is for

An Indian citizen living in Sydney with a valid Indian passport can apply for Aadhaar once they arrive in India on a visit. An Australian citizen holding an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card cannot. The OCI holder must first spend 182 days in India in the 12 months immediately before applying, and the Aadhaar number then issued is valid for ten years. The rules on Aadhaar for NRI applicants, OCI cardholders and other foreign nationals come from the Aadhaar Act 2016, a 2019 government notification, and the forms and document lists of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).

What Aadhaar is, and what it does not prove

The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act 2016 describes the Aadhaar number as “a twelve-digit identification number”. Enrolment collects demographic information, including name, date of birth and address, and biometric information, defined as “photograph, finger print, Iris scan, or such other biological attributes of an individual as may be specified by regulations”. UIDAI’s enrolment forms list enrolment itself as free.

The Act defines a “resident” as “an individual who has resided in India for a period or periods amounting in all to one hundred and eighty-two days or more in the twelve months immediately preceding the date of application for enrolment”. Section 3(1) entitles every resident to an Aadhaar number, and a proviso lets the Central Government “notify such other category of individuals who may be entitled to obtain an Aadhaar number”.

Section 9 states that the Aadhaar number “shall not, by itself, confer any right of, or be proof of, citizenship or domicile”.

Aadhaar for NRI applicants: the 182-day wait does not apply

On 20 September 2019 the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology used that proviso to issue notification S.O. 3425(E). It states that “a Non Resident Indian, after his arrival in India, shall be entitled to obtain an Aadhaar number”, and defines a Non Resident Indian as “a person who is a citizen of India holding a valid Indian Passport but not a resident as defined under clause (v) of section 2” of the Act. The 182-day residence test therefore does not apply to NRIs.

UIDAI’s forms set the conditions. Form 1, for resident Indians and for NRIs with a proof of address in India, states: “For NRIs, valid Indian passport is the only acceptable POI”, meaning proof of identity. Form 2 is for a “Non-Resident Indian having Proof of Address outside India”, and states that “Valid Indian passport is the only acceptable POI and POA”. Both forms make an email address mandatory for NRIs and a mobile number optional, noting that “In case of a non-Indian mobile number, no SMS / text message will be sent to the same.”

Entitlement arises “after his arrival in India”, and the forms require that “Original documents must be presented”. Indian consular guidance states that Indian nationals who acquire foreign citizenship “are required to surrender their Indian passports”, so an Indian citizen who becomes an Australian citizen moves into the category below.

OCI cardholders and other foreign nationals: 182 days, then a time limit

An OCI cardholder is a citizen of another country, and Indian missions state that “OCI is not to be misconstrued as ‘dual citizenship'”. The 2019 notification covers only Indian citizens holding a valid Indian passport, and UIDAI places OCI cardholders under its form for a “Resident Foreign National (aged 18 years or above)”. That form requires the declaration: “I am a foreign national and resident of India (resided in India for 182 days or more in 12 months immediately preceding my enrolment application).”

The Act counts “a period or periods” within those 12 months, so several stays in that year can be added together; earlier years do not count.

What changed in 2025 and 2026

UIDAI’s gazetted notifications page lists three sets of amendments to the Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations in 2025, followed by the Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) First Amendment Regulations, 2026. UIDAI’s current list of acceptable documents, issued in 2026, groups OCI cardholders with Long Term Visa holders, nationals of Nepal and Bhutan and “other foreign nationals who have stayed in India for 182 days or more in the immediately preceding 12 months”.

For OCI cardholders, the list accepts a “Valid foreign passport (along with OCI card)” as proof of identity but not as proof of address, which must come from a general document showing an address in India. It sets the validity period as “OCI cardholders – ten years”. Other foreign nationals present a “Valid foreign passport (along with valid visa)”, and their Aadhaar is valid “till the validity of visa / Registration Certificate or Residential permit issued by FRRO/FRO (as applicable)”.

What the number is used for

Section 7 of the Act lets the central and state governments require Aadhaar authentication, or proof of possession of an Aadhaar number, for a subsidy, benefit or service funded from the Consolidated Fund of India or of a state, with a proviso that anyone without a number “shall be offered alternate and viable means of identification”.

Outside that, the Act describes use of the number as voluntary. The Aadhaar and Other Laws (Amendment) Act 2019 rewrote section 4 so that a holder “may voluntarily use his Aadhaar number in physical or electronic form by way of authentication or offline verification”, a requesting entity “shall not deny any service to him for refusing to, or being unable to, undergo authentication”, and mandatory authentication applies only where it “is required by a law made by Parliament”.

The same Act inserted section 11A into the Prevention of Money-laundering Act 2002. Reporting entities such as banks may verify a client by Aadhaar authentication, offline verification, a passport or another officially valid document, and “no client or beneficial owner shall be denied services for not having an Aadhaar number”.

The PAN linking rule, and who is exempt

The Income-tax Act 2025, in force since 1 April 2026, sets the rule in section 262. Section 262(5) states: “Every person who is eligible to obtain Aadhaar number shall quote such number in the application form for allotment of Permanent Account Number and in the return of income.” Existing Permanent Account Number (PAN) holders must intimate their Aadhaar number, failing which “the Permanent Account Number allotted to that person shall be made inoperative”. Section 262(12) lets the Central Government notify people to whom these requirements do not apply.

The Income Tax Department’s e-filing portal still describes the rule under section 139AA of the 1961 Act. It lists the consequences of an inoperative PAN, including no refund and tax deducted and collected at source at higher rates, and states that “A fee of one thousand rupees will continue to apply to make the PAN operative by intimating the Aadhaar number”, a fee of ₹1,000.

The portal also points to Department of Revenue notification S.O. 1513(E) of 11 May 2017, effective from 1 July 2017 and issued under the old section 139AA. It excludes an individual “who does not possess the Aadhaar number or the Enrolment ID” and who is residing in Assam, Jammu and Kashmir or Meghalaya; is “a non-resident as per the Income-tax Act, 1961”; is aged eighty or more at any time during the previous year; or is “not a citizen of India”.

On that wording, the exemption covers only people who hold neither an Aadhaar number nor an Enrolment ID. An OCI cardholder who has never enrolled is not a citizen of India and falls within it; one who holds Aadhaar does not. An Indian citizen in Australia without Aadhaar falls within it only while the tax law counts them as a non-resident, a separate test from the Aadhaar Act’s definition of residence.

Takeaway

For an Indian passport holder in Australia, the 2019 notification makes Aadhaar available after arrival in India with no 182-day wait. For an Australian citizen with an OCI card, UIDAI requires 182 days in India in the preceding 12 months, the number lasts ten years, and section 9 of the Act says it is not proof of citizenship. Under these rules, the outcome turns on the passport held, the days spent in India over the past twelve months and, for PAN linking, residence for tax. This article is general information, not legal or tax advice.