Walkthrough - moving back to India from US

Discussion in 'Return to India' started by drb, Aug 14, 2011.

  1. drb

    drb New IL'ite

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    Hello all, I am requesting help from fellow forum'ers and also provide a thread with 'collective' thread with all necessary information to move back to India.

    When others provide information, if possible, I shall edit my first thread and keep it 'together' and provide information. Hoping....

    In another 7 months I will be moving back to Chennai. Steps that I started taking are:

    1. Visit to India. Atleast make 2 visits to India before deciding. Take family along. See if you fit.

    2. Decision. First you got to decide. Why? Mainly, there are many avenues to earn money in India. Since my income in US is limited to what I do. Chennai has tremendously developed. Malls are more like US. Family/relatives were necessary. Instilling culture to my kid played a minor role. Somehow I always felt that I was leading a 'false' life in US (after living for more than 15 yrs). THis is subjective.


    3. Source of income. Find a stable source of income to settle down.

    4. Savings. Take all the dollars you can from US. Transfer money whenever there is good currency exchange rate. Always there is fee associated with transfer. But I found a way to avoid it and is easy. Deposit the money in FD and you will get around 8-9%. Say you take 50 lakhs, it will fetch around 45,000 Rs /month. A good solid money.

    5. Household items. Shipping costs around 4000$. I am working on this. Currently considering following companies. I need help in this. :bonk
    <cite>www.[B]shipping[/B]-worldwide.com/</cite>
    Worldwide Shipping Company - Find International Shipping Company with Free Low Cost Shipping Quote
    Cargo Shipping to/from India

    Unless it is valuable, better to ship only necessary items. All my furniture are first hand, I will loose money if I sell, hence taking them along probably in a 20 or 40 ft container. Remember, quality furniture including TV etc are comparable prices in India. So one shouldn't think it is always cheap in India.

    6. Special gadgets: Because we have to convert PAL to NTSC. I am wondering what sort of converter that I need to buy. ANy suggestions?:bonk Secondly, for power supply conversion 240V to 110 v for your electronics - generally the converters are around 100- 200 Rs in India. Easy to get in most electronics shops in India.

    7. Winding up in US. First checked all my contractual agreements like Directtv, cell phone etc. Made sure I can solve it. Loans - especially car loan. I am trying to sell my car here. Any suggestions?:bonk Taking car is subjected to customs duty, unless it is worth. Not recommended shipping.

    More.....?
     
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  2. VidhyaRajan

    VidhyaRajan New IL'ite

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    Hi,

    so you are well prepared drb ...

    one thing i see is ,all you household item total cost more than 4000$ ?i would assume u are planning to take sofa,tv, and few more items...you can spend that money in india and get nice stuff there.. just think on this and get suggestions before u do this .

    will follow ur thread to learn more from others comment :)

    Good luck!
     
  3. tulasi2005

    tulasi2005 New IL'ite

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    We are planning to relocate to Hyderabad..I personally feel its time to move with the changes in the job market in India compared to 8 years back ,when we came to USA.Income in USA is limited ,expenses are unavoidable resulting with less savings .I am hoping savings could be better in India compared to USA for an IT professional who already have a home to live and have some one to take care of kids .

    LIfe is to enjoy with no limits, that is possible only in India,most of us are leading false life here.

    We too have lot of good stuff to ship to India looking for good deals.Couple of my friends who relocated last year shipped all their stuff in containers to India for ~$5000.00.I strongly agree that Quality things are not cheaper in India and better to buy good stuff in USA and ship all of them.

    Any one who already moved back home please throw some light on this topic...
     
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  4. RKalyani

    RKalyani New IL'ite

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    Hi,

    We are planning to relocate to Chennai. This discussion is really helpful.:coffee

    Thank you.
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2011
  5. mituyadav

    mituyadav Platinum IL'ite

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    Drb,


    Can you throw some light on kids' education ( if kids were born in US )..
     
  6. priya8716

    priya8716 Junior IL'ite

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    My 2 cents. We relocated to Bangalore last May and we did ship everything. I too was hesistant about the high shipping costs. I would suggest that as part of your visits before relocation, make a list of things you need to setup a household and visit some shops. You would get an idea of the cost of things (shocked me) for the quality you are looking for. We did this and found that good quality wood with the professional finish we were looking for (shine/carvings etc) is extremely costly in India. We were also looking for extendable furniture - like dining table with leaves - so that it would fit in small apartments but can accomodate when we have guests. You do not find these here. Second category is good steel products - storage shelves, clothes dryer, ladder are also costly here. Third are convenience items like closet organizers. We were fine with electronics items in India. Yes you have good deals in US, but you also have the voltage conversion hassle. So we brought a select few electronics.
    Again, do some research when you come here. Things in India are much more costly that you might expect. Perhaps the level of quality we expect has increased, but it is what it is :)
     
  7. Nivedhiya

    Nivedhiya Bronze IL'ite

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    Just watch out for the expenses you may incur at customs in India .They are corrupt and even when you
    have your papers in order they make you pay to clear the cargo
     
  8. priya8716

    priya8716 Junior IL'ite

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    Customs is a big headache, but based on how well you bargain, it will be a fraction of the shipping cost. Customs website has a list of items and their duty. So people concentrate on the duty for TV, home theatre etc. What we missed was that anything not listed will be taxed at 35%. We took a digital piano and that created a big hassle. Other than that, we had very minor things that are taxable. However, he said that duty was 1 lakh something. After some explanations, he said that it was Rs. 70K. He immediately said that if I dont need a receipt, I would just have to pay half that amount (all goes to his pocket). That was the the bar he set and I was totally unprepared for such high amount. Almost all our friends payed in the Rs.10-15K range. Frustrating!
     
  9. srims

    srims Bronze IL'ite

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    Can we ship Washer and dryer to India from here? At least a dryer????!!!!.If so it will be really very useful since we need a hard search for a place to dry clothes in Chennai.
     
  10. skalluri

    skalluri Gold IL'ite

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    This thread is very useful, thanks tulsi, Priya for useful information you posted. Please throw more light on relocation ideas, things that are worthful to buy abroad (US) to take to India.

    SK.
     

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