During the time I applied for the account, there was no need for PAN card or Permanent Account Number for the NRIs. However due to the IPO scam and other similar concerns and to improve the identity verification process, PAN has been made compulsory now.

It starts with a bank account:

You must either possess a PAN card prior to applying for the online trading account or it must be applied before you apply for the online share trading account. By September 2006, all are supposed to have a PAN card to be able to continue using their online share trading system. 

My entry into the equity market was with the intention of a fast exit from the Gulf. I already had an ICICI bank account which allowed me online banking. However I did not have a web trade account which was needed to start online trading. I did not have it for two reasons. One lack of subject knowledge and second, the initiative.

When ICICI was contacted, they sent a representative and the rep. asked for a 3000 Rs. Cheque and some photographs, passport copy and proof of residence. This is because I already have an NRI account. For those who does not have it, the charges could be around 13000 RS as an account had to be open. ICICI stipulates that you keep 15,000 as minimum balance in the bank account. These figures could be different now and I have used them just to give you an indication of cost.

The first steps:

After the registration form was signed, (You have to sign up in many pages), application was sent to Mumbai for verification and approval.

At the same time, you are asked to go to the web, signup with www.icicidirect.com and get an ARN number (you get at the end of the registration process on the site) and give it to the ICICI representative. With this registration on the web, you also get a user id and password. However when you login at this stage, you don’t get to use the trading system as your registration is pending approval at the Mumbai office.

Once the paper application sent to ICICI has been verified and approved, an e-mail will be sent to you by the ICICIdirect letting you know that the application has been approved and that the user account (You have previously created) has been made ready for use.

These steps described here may be different for different online trading systems and may be different within ICICI depending upon from which location you may be commencing the process.

In my case, I was asked to get a user ID and Password by going into http://nri.icicidirect.com and opening a member account. You get an ARN number during this process and that's given to the ICICI representative. At the same time your paper application for the trading account is sent to India for verification. Once the application has been processed, you would get an e-mail and then you can log onto the system with your user ID and Password and activate the account. At this stage, this account is ready for use and for online share trading.