Comparing Routes - 1

Every route begins with the same two hurdles, opening an account and completing your KYC.

The onshore route is the gentlest. With international mutual funds, and especially Indian-listed international index funds, you are often using an account you already have. If you already invest in domestic mutual funds, your KYC is done, your platform is familiar, and buying a global fund is barely different from buying any other fund.

The offshore routes, US ETFs and UCITS ETFs, are also very easy to access. Many of the existing platforms and brokers already offer these products. Opening a new account is far simpler than it once was, much of it is now digital and can be done in a few, quick steps.

GIFT City is offshore by law but domestic in location. You open an account with an IFSCA-licensed broker or buy a GIFT City fund, and while you still remit under the LRS, the experience is designed to feel closer to a domestic process than a foreign one.

The second question is how much money you need to begin, and here the routes differ in ways that matter enormously for a beginner starting small.

The single most important idea is fractional investing, which you met back in Module 0. On the offshore routes that offer it, you do not need the full price of a share or an ETF unit to start. If a US ETF unit costs a few hundred dollars, you can still begin with a small amount, buying a fraction of it, and you can decide your investment by rupee amount rather than by whole units.

Mutual funds, both domestic international funds and the index-fund versions, are built around low minimums by design, and they pair naturally with SIPs, letting you invest a fixed rupee amount at regular intervals.

GIFT City is the costliest of all. While newer outbound retail funds have brought minimums down significantly but still remain expensive for a retail investor, usually around $5,000.

Fractional investing and SIPs mean most routes can be started with small amounts, so ticket size is rarely the barrier it once was, with the one exception that certain GIFT City products still demand large sums.