An IMGlobalWealth.news Report
For India’s wealthy, a second residence is increasingly becoming less a lifestyle purchase than a form of insurance.
Evidence of the shift is appearing in places more concrete than the marketing material of investment-migration firms. In June, the US State Department announced that Indian applicants had already exhausted their country allocation for unreserved EB-5 investor visas for the 2026 financial year. No more could be issued until the new US fiscal year begins in October.
“India does not permit dual citizenship: an Indian citizen who voluntarily acquires another nationality ceases to be an Indian citizen”
That follows mounting pressure in previous years. Washington had already reported sufficiently strong Indian demand to push back, or “retrogress”, the country’s EB-5 final-action date in 2025.
The numbers point to a broader phenomenon. Wealthy Indians are increasingly building what might be called geographical diversification: maintaining businesses and assets at home while acquiring residence rights, investments and family options elsewhere.
The Reserve Bank of India provides another measure of internationalisation. Indians remitted $31.7bn abroad under its Liberalised Remittance Scheme in the 2023-24 financial year, up from $27.1bn the previous year. Most of that money was spent on travel, education and supporting relatives rather than migration itself, so it should not be mistaken for investment-migration spending. But it illustrates the rapidly growing financial connections between Indian households and the rest of the world.
India nevertheless imposes an important constraint. Resident individuals are generally limited to $250,000 of overseas remittances each financial year under the LRS. This makes larger international investments more complicated for families whose wealth remains onshore.
Citizenship poses an even sharper trade-off. India does not permit dual citizenship: an Indian citizen who voluntarily acquires another nationality ceases to be an Indian citizen. That helps explain why residence programmes can be particularly attractive, providing international optionality without necessarily requiring an immediate change of nationality.
Private wealth-migration estimates reinforce the picture. Henley & Partners says Indian nationals have ranked among its five largest source markets for applications since 2021 and were its leading nationality for enquiries in 2026.
The important change, then, is not simply that rich Indians are leaving. Many are not. Instead, global mobility itself is becoming part of the family balance sheet: alongside property, equities and businesses sits something harder to price, but increasingly valuable in an uncertain world – the ability to choose where to live.
