Send Money to USA from India

What each bank charges to send USD to USA

Line items reflect the bank's published fee schedule. GST at 18% is charged on commission (and on Swift / correspondent charges where the bank explicitly applies it).

How to send money to USA from India

1. Get the beneficiary's bank details. Full name and address as held by their bank, bank name and address in USA, plus the ABA routing number, account number, and SWIFT code.
2. Pick the purpose code and fill Form A2. The A2 form is the LRS declaration; the most common codes for USA are S0202 (education), S0301 (business travel), S1301 (gift), S0305 (maintenance of relative). Your PAN is mandatory and the bank checks your LRS usage for the financial year against the USD 250,000 cap.
3. Check TCS before you send. Above ₹10 lakh in a financial year most non-education purposes attract 20% TCS, collected by the bank and claimable in your ITR; education and medical purposes have lower rates. The calculator on this page applies it when you enter your year-to-date LRS amount.
4. Choose the channel. HDFC, ICICI, Kotak and Axis accept outward remittance in USD through NetBanking or their apps; SBI routes select currencies through YONO and the rest through a branch; IOB is branch-led. Branch channels usually cost more — the bank pages list the difference.
5. Decide who pays the SWIFT and correspondent charges. OUR means you pay them upfront in rupees and the beneficiary gets the full amount; SHA and BEN shift them downstream, where they are deducted from what arrives. SBI's Payee, Remitter and Guaranteed modes are the same choice under different names.
6. The bank applies the TT Selling rate and its charges. Your INR is converted at the bank's published TT Selling rate for USD at the moment of debit, then commission, SWIFT / correspondent charges and 18% GST are added — exactly the lines shown above.
7. Track it and expect 1–3 working days. Ask the bank for the SWIFT reference (UETR) so the beneficiary's bank can trace the payment. The US is 9.5–12.5 hours behind IST in summer (10.5–13.5 in winter), so a transfer initiated in the Indian morning usually reaches the US bank on the same US business day; weekends and US bank holidays add a day.

LRS cap: USD 250,000 per resident per financial year (across all corridors combined). TCS at 20% applies above ₹10 lakh per year for most non-education purposes and is claimable in your ITR.

Sending to USA: what's different

The USA is one of the largest outward corridors from India: university tuition and living expenses, family maintenance for dependants, and investments under LRS make up most retail transfers, with a long tail of gifts to relatives.

On the receiving side

• US banks identify accounts by a 9-digit ABA routing number plus the account number; the SWIFT/BIC code routes the international leg. Both go on the A2 form — a wire with only one of them is delayed or returned.
• Many US banks charge the recipient an incoming international wire fee — commonly USD 15–25 — on top of whatever the Indian bank charged. It shows up as a deduction on the US side, never on your Indian receipt.
• Universities often collect fees through Flywire or Convera rather than a direct wire; those platforms quote their own rate, so compare it with the TT Selling rates on this page before paying.

About USD

USD is the reference currency for most Indian fee tables: SBI sets its branch commission and correspondent charge in USD, and ICICI's ₹1,000 "home corridor" commission applies to USD. The bank pages spell out the USD-specific lines.

Timing

The US is 9.5–12.5 hours behind IST in summer (10.5–13.5 in winter), so a transfer initiated in the Indian morning usually reaches the US bank on the same US business day; weekends and US bank holidays add a day.

FAQ — Sending money to USA from India