How to File the FBAR Online for Indian Bank Accounts: Step-by-Step BSA E-Filing Guide

The FBAR asks the same handful of questions for each account. Collect them in one sheet before you open the website, because the online form cannot save a half-finished report. For each account you need the items below.

FinCEN defines the maximum value as a “reasonable approximation of the greatest value” in the account during the year. You can rely on periodic statements if they fairly reflect the peak. The year-end balance is not the number the form wants, and neither is an average.

For mutual funds, CAMS and KFintech jointly issue the consolidated account statement (CAS) to the email registered against your PAN. Ask for the detailed version and set the period to the calendar year, not India’s April-to-March financial year. The CAS covers folios across fund houses that use either registrar, which saves you from chasing each fund separately.

Two traps catch first-time filers. First, the same rupees can count twice. If you broke an FD and moved the money into savings, the FD’s peak and the savings account’s peak both go on the form, because each account is valued separately and the test adds the separate maximums. Second, an account that was closed during 2025 still has to be reported with its maximum value before closure.

Which Indian holdings are accounts at all, and which are not (directly held property, gold, a bank locker), is covered in our account-by-account checklist of Indian accounts on the FBAR. For EPF, PPF and NPS, see U.S. tax rules for Indian retirement accounts.

FinCEN’s instructions say to use the Treasury’s reporting rate of exchange for the last day of the calendar year. For India, the Treasury Reporting Rates of Exchange list 89.854 rupees per U.S. dollar on December 31, 2025. Use that one rate for every rupee account, even if the peak happened in March when the rupee was at a different level.

The method is: take the maximum value in rupees, divide by 89.854, and round up to the next whole dollar. FinCEN’s own example is that $15,265.25 is recorded as $15,266. The online form rejects cents.

Here is the worked example. Arjun (a made-up name) is on H-1B, lived in the U.S. all of 2025 and is single. His 2025 records show these peaks:

To check the rounding yourself, multiply back. 8,261 times 89.854 is Rs 7,42,284, below the Rs 7,42,310 peak, so 8,261 would understate the account; 8,262 times 89.854 is Rs 7,42,374, which covers it. The same check works for every line.

Notice that no single account is over $10,000, and the largest is only $8,262. Arjun still files because the test adds the maximums together. It also does not matter that FD 2 was funded out of the savings account and that those rupees appear in both lines. The total is not a measure of his net worth; it is a sum of separate peaks.

The joint NRO account goes in at its full value of $1,407, not half. FinCEN’s instructions say each joint owner reports the entire value of a jointly owned account.

Go to the BSA E-Filing System at bsaefiling.fincen.gov (the older bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov address redirects there). Click File FBAR, described on the home page as the option to file FinCEN Report 114 for individuals. You do not enroll, and you do not need a user ID. A warning screen appears first; read it and click I Agree.

The site offers two versions of the same form, shown in the menu as File FBAR (PDF or HTML). They collect identical data. Pick based on whether you can finish in one sitting.

The rest of this guide follows the online form, which most individual filers use. Its tabs run left to right: Home, Filer Information, Account Information, Signature/Third Party Preparer Information and Submit. Required fields carry an asterisk. The PDF form uses the same item numbers, so the field-by-field notes below apply to both.

The Home tab lists FinCEN’s four steps: prepare the FBAR, finalize it, submit it, and confirm the submission status. It has two inputs that matter.

Filing name (e.g. SMITH FBAR 2018). Type a label only you will use, such as ARJUN FBAR 2025. It identifies your report in the system and when you call the help desk.

If this report is being filed late, select the reason for filing late. Leave this blank if you file on or before October 15, 2026. FinCEN treats a report as late only when it is filed after October 15 of the year following the reporting year. If you are filing a late report, perhaps for 2023 or 2024 that you missed, the dropdown offers these reasons:

A late filing is not the subject of this guide, and the route you take matters more than the dropdown. The IRS removed its separate delinquent FBAR submission procedures page in mid-2026; its current options page lists the Voluntary Disclosure Practice, the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures and the delinquent international information return submission procedures. If NRE interest never made it onto your returns, the choice is more serious. Read missed FBAR for Indian bank accounts before you file anything late.

Part I is about you. Work down the fields in order:

Item 14 is the bulk-accounts option. If you have a financial interest in 25 or more accounts, answer Yes, enter the total count, and skip Parts II and III; you must keep the full details and hand them over if FinCEN or the IRS asks. Large families with many FDs sometimes reach this. Below 25, list every account.

A new H-4 spouse who has no SSN or ITIN yet can still file using item 4 with an Indian passport. Do not invent a number or type zeros into item 3.

Part II, “Financial account(s) owned separately,” is where most Indian accounts go. Click Add Account for each one; the form labels them Separate Account #1, #2 and so on. Each entry has the same fields:

Arjun repeats this four times in Part II: the NRE savings at $8,262, FD 1 at $5,974, FD 2 at $3,429, and the mutual fund at $2,437.

For the mutual fund folio, enter the fund house (the asset management company) as the institution and the folio number as the account number. FinCEN’s dropdown offers only Bank, Securities and Other; it does not name mutual funds. Securities, or Other with a short description such as “Mutual fund folio,” are both defensible. Choose one and use it the same way every year. A demat account is Securities, with the depository participant (your broker or bank) as the institution and the DP and client ID as the account number.

Avoid FinCEN’s banned placeholder entries in any text field: NONE, UNKNOWN, SAME, SAME AS ABOVE, VARIOUS, NOT APPLICABLE, OTHER and XX are all prohibited. If you truly lack a piece of data, leave an optional field empty instead.

Part III. Financial Account(s) Owned Jointly. Arjun’s NRO account, held with his mother, goes here. Items 15 to 23 are the same as Part II, entered at the full $1,407. Then come two joint-owner items:

If your spouse is a joint owner, your spouse is the principal joint owner for that account. Parents, siblings or a spouse all go in the same fields; only the spouse case lets the second person skip their own FBAR (Step 8).

Part IV, signature authority but no financial interest. Use this only for accounts you can operate but do not own, such as a parent’s savings account where the bank has you on record as a mandate holder or power of attorney. You enter the account details in items 15 to 23, then the owner’s name, TIN and address in items 34 to 42, and your title with this owner in item 43. FinCEN’s relief that pushes some signature-authority-only filers to April 15, 2027 covers certain employees with authority over employer accounts. It does not cover a family member’s account or anything you have a financial interest in, so a Part IV parent account is still due October 15, 2026.

Part V, consolidated report. This is for a U.S. entity that owns more than 50 percent of other entities. Individuals leave it empty.

The Signature/Third Party Preparer Information tab holds item 44, Filer signature, which says to prepare the FBAR for submission from the Submit tab. Item 45, Filer title, stays blank when you report your own accounts. If a parent files for a minor child, the instructions say to enter “Parent/Guardian filing for child.” Item 46, Date of signature, fills in automatically when you finalize.

Joint filing with a spouse. An H-4 spouse who is a resident alien may not need a separate FBAR. FinCEN’s exception applies only when all three conditions hold: every reportable account the spouse has is jointly owned with you, you report those joint accounts on a timely FBAR, and both of you complete and sign FinCEN Form 114a, the Record of Authorization to Electronically File FBARs. If your spouse has even one account in their own name in India, the exception fails and each of you files separately, each reporting the full value of the joint accounts. Your tax filing status (married filing jointly or separately) has no effect.

The system accepts only one electronic signature, which is why Form 114a exists. The spouse who files enters the joint accounts in Part III with the other spouse as principal joint owner, and the signed 114a goes in your records. FinCEN says not to send it.

Third-party preparer. A CPA, enrolled agent or attorney who files for you cannot use the no-registration individual option. They must register with BSA E-Filing as an institution and file from that account. You sign Form 114a authorizing them, and both of you keep a copy. On the form the preparer checks item 44a and completes the preparer section, items 47 to 59: name, PTIN, phone, firm name and EIN, and address. Spouses filing jointly do not complete that section.

The Submit tab asks for contact details: email address (typed twice), first name, last name and phone number. FinCEN uses the email for status messages, so use one you check. Then:

The Tracking ID proves you submitted. The BSA ID proves FinCEN accepted the report, and you need it for any amendment. Store both emails with the transcript. If the acknowledgement does not arrive, use Check Submission Status on the BSA E-Filing site or contact the help desk with your Tracking ID.

A report submitted on October 15, 2026 is on time. Filing a day or two earlier leaves room to fix a validation error or a browser problem, and the help desk is open only until 6 p.m. Eastern.

Found a missing FD or a wrong account number after filing? You do not edit the old report. You file a brand-new, complete FBAR for 2025 that includes every account, the corrected ones and the unchanged ones, and mark it as an amendment.

The downloaded transcript from the online form is a read-only copy; you cannot upload it as an amendment. Amend as soon as you find the error. If the correction adds accounts whose income never reached your tax returns, read the late-filer guidance linked in Step 4 first.