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sardeb - My R2I (Chennai) Plan / diary
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:20 am
by sardeb
Hi Everyone!
I want to tell you all who have been on the R2I boat what our plans are, and according to your experience if you could provide me some feedback, I would really appreciate it!
Our background: Husband and I were born in India, but were brought up in Africa. We only visited India often. Husband then moved to US to study then work. I moved later to study and work. We met and got married here. Husband has been in US for 17 years. Myself for 10 years. We have an 18 month old son! We want to R2I because we feel at home in Inida, parents have retired and R2Id from Africa, so we want to be close to them. We don't want to make the same sacrifices they did by living in Africa away from their homes. Hense we decided to give it a shot. So here goes with the plan:
1. Husbnad going to India with an offshore project from a US company in March 2008.
2. I am looking for employment in India currently. Hope to get one before I leave in June.
3. Husband will "test the waters" for 3 months. Will return to US in June for "final packup" and take my son (18 months old) and I with him.
4. Husband will receive US citizenship by summer of 2008.
5. I on the other hand cannot apply for US citizenship until 2010.
6. In order to prove residency of US, until I get my citizenship, I have to show property in US. So we plan to rent out our current house. Note that we have our old condo that is out on rent as well (since housing market is so slow, it did not sell). So we plan to have two properties on rent when we R2I.
7. We plan to take with us majoy furnitures like Sofa, Bedroom sets, Dining table. Sell the rest of the stuff.
8. My in-laws are coming to help me in the three months my husband is in India with the down sizing of our stuff.
9. Once we R2I I plan to come to US once in 6 months, to keep my GC status "alive" for the sake of my citizenship application.
10. We are giving ourselves 2 years to decide whether we should break all ties to US and keep both our feet in India.
11. Why don't I wait till I get my citizenship? well mainly because when an opportunity like the one my husband got comes along, its too good to pass. Besides, its easy to fall in the trap of x+1 syndrome! Love that term! Found it on R2I forum :D
12. While husband is in India till June, he wil establish residency there, we plan to rent an apartment first, look for schooling and decide whether our pet (a lab/chow/shepard mutt) will survive there.
Gosh you can imagine how overwhelmed we are with all these changes. But we really want to do this. I just wanted to know what you all think who have R2Id? What are we doing wrong, what are we doing right and why.
Much appreciated!
sardeb - My R2I (Chennai) Plan / diary
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 10:02 am
by nand
congratulations for thinking about this. I am R2I'ing next week, cannot tell you about post r2i but right now in the thick of the move logisitics. There are a couple of checklists in the shipping and packing thread. You can use that as a starting point. Reg your comment that you plan to take furniture and not the rest, IMHO take everything or take nothing. For furniture you will book a container so might as well take evthing. Of course if you are talking about only a couple of pieces then LCL maybe viable too.
Having grown up in Africa (both??) and lived adult life in US are you sure you can adjust to the indian situation culturally and socially? From what I hear desis in africa typically lived a life of luxury unimaginable in the US or India. Lots of cash and hired help both. Only you know the answer to this. If you are sure then try it out and maybe you will like maybe you wont but at least you tried.
I cannot see that you are doing anything wrong to answer your question. You seem to have a strong reason and as long as you know what to expect you will be fine. After all your folks moving to africa may have been a scarier move then than your move to India!
good luck.
sardeb;83845Hi Everyone!
I want to tell you all who have been on the R2I boat what our plans are, and according to your experience if you could provide me some feedback, I would really appreciate it!
Our background: Husband and I were born in India, but were brought up in Africa. We only visited India often. Husband then moved to US to study then work. I moved later to study and work. We met and got married here. Husband has been in US for 17 years. Myself for 10 years. We have an 18 month old son! We want to R2I because we feel at home in Inida, parents have retired and R2Id from Africa, so we want to be close to them. We don't want to make the same sacrifices they did by living in Africa away from their homes. Hense we decided to give it a shot. So here goes with the plan:
1. Husbnad going to India with an offshore project from a US company in March 2008.
2. I am looking for employment in India currently. Hope to get one before I leave in June.
3. Husband will "test the waters" for 3 months. Will return to US in June for "final packup" and take my son (18 months old) and I with him.
4. Husband will receive US citizenship by summer of 2008.
5. I on the other hand cannot apply for US citizenship until 2010.
6. In order to prove residency of US, until I get my citizenship, I have to show property in US. So we plan to rent out our current house. Note that we have our old condo that is out on rent as well (since housing market is so slow, it did not sell). So we plan to have two properties on rent when we R2I.
7. We plan to take with us majoy furnitures like Sofa, Bedroom sets, Dining table. Sell the rest of the stuff.
8. My in-laws are coming to help me in the three months my husband is in India with the down sizing of our stuff.
9. Once we R2I I plan to come to US once in 6 months, to keep my GC status "alive" for the sake of my citizenship application.
10. We are giving ourselves 2 years to decide whether we should break all ties to US and keep both our feet in India.
11. Why don't I wait till I get my citizenship? well mainly because when an opportunity like the one my husband got comes along, its too good to pass. Besides, its easy to fall in the trap of x+1 syndrome! Love that term! Found it on R2I forum :D
12. While husband is in India till June, he wil establish residency there, we plan to rent an apartment first, look for schooling and decide whether our pet (a lab/chow/shepard mutt) will survive there.
Gosh you can imagine how overwhelmed we are with all these changes. But we really want to do this. I just wanted to know what you all think who have R2Id? What are we doing wrong, what are we doing right and why.
Much appreciated![/quote]
sardeb - My R2I (Chennai) Plan / diary
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 9:37 pm
by ILuvHyd
sardeb;83845Hi Everyone!
I want to tell you all who have been on the R2I boat what our plans are, and according to your experience if you could provide me some feedback, I would really appreciate it!
[/quote]
Sardeb,
You plan looks good and I hope you have a successful R2I. Couple of questions
1. Which city are you R2Iing?
2. Do you have/intend to apply a re-entry permit? From what I read on immihelp.com, there seems to be a minimum stay (5 months??) requirement in a calendar year in US to keep GC alive unless you have a re-entry permit.
http://www.immihelp.com/greencard/reentry-permit.html
Looks like your parents have already successfully R2Ied and I am sure you have learnt from their experiences when you planned yours.
All the best.
sardeb - My R2I (Chennai) Plan / diary
Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 1:58 am
by sardeb
ILuvHyd;83976Sardeb,
You plan looks good and I hope you have a successful R2I. Couple of questions
1. Which city are you R2Iing?
2. Do you have/intend to apply a re-entry permit? From what I read on immihelp.com, there seems to be a minimum stay (5 months??) requirement in a calendar year in US to keep GC alive unless you have a re-entry permit.
http://www.immihelp.com/greencard/reentry-permit.html
Looks like your parents have already successfully R2Ied and I am sure you have learnt from their experiences when you planned yours.
All the best.[/quote]
Thanks!
Yes I have applied for re-entry permit. Our lawyer told us that even with a re-entry permit, you have to return to US every 6 months to keep GC alive. But this maybe because I want to apply for US citizenship later.
We are R2Iing to Chennai.
Our parents R2Id but at the same time broke all ties with Africa! So no question of keeping "GC alive" and all that BS!! :rolleyes:
sardeb - My R2I (Chennai) Plan / diary
Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 9:00 am
by sardeb
Hi everyone!
Thanks to all who posted! It has been encouraging for sure :emteeth:
I just read ILuvHyd's blog and OH MY GOD! Does he have it all done the right way or what??? :emsmile: I mean him and his wife are so well off now they can decide not to work for the next 5 YEARS! Thats just wonderful! I wish I was in his shoes, but unfortunately not.
Anyway keep the posts coming and feel free to speak your mind about our plans!
sardeb - My R2I (Chennai) Plan / diary
Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 9:47 am
by ILuvHyd
sardeb;84207Hi everyone!
I mean him and his wife are so well off now they can decide not to work for the next 5 YEARS! Thats just wonderful! I wish I was in his shoes, but unfortunately not.
Anyway keep the posts coming and feel free to speak your mind about our plans![/quote]
Sardeb,
Thanks for your good words. Actual plan is not to ever work for a pay cheque again. We don't know if our monies last that long. We have a modest life style and hope we can achieve it. Close to my R2I date, I will ask for help on my AAP from Finance Gurus on this forum.
sardeb - My R2I (Chennai) Plan / diary
Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008 12:51 am
by OffWeGo
9. Once we R2I I plan to come to US once in 6 months, to keep my GC status "alive" for the sake of my citizenship application.
With regards to citizenship, I've heard that INS has a Global Enterprise program where a spouse of a US citizen may not need the usual residency requirements if a US company is posting the citizen abroad and the spouse will be out of the country accompanying this citizen. Don't know all the details, but you could ask your lawyer. My company mentioned this to me but neither of us has citizenhip, so we didn't get further into it.
We are going back with GC + REP as well, and I thought that you don't need to visit to maintain GC once you get the REP. And, I had the impression that visiting won't help with citizenship since you must have GC / residence for 5 yrs overall and also 2.5 yrs living here continuously right before applying. May be different for USC spouse though....
sardeb - My R2I (Chennai) Plan / diary
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 8:21 am
by sardeb
Hi OffWeGo! Thanks for your response! yes the whole thing is quite complicated. If you have no intention of applying for USC then you need not visit US every 6 months. However even with REP you have to be in the US to re-apply for a REP. You are correct about being in US for 2.5 years continously with GC, but it does not have to be right before applying the USC.
Anyway my biggest problem now is even my husband's USC may take from 18 mnths to 3 years. In that case, when do we plan for 2nd baby? If born in India and my husband does not have his USC, then child is not eligible to be USC either. Oh the dilema! All said and done, you have to give up one side, can't have one foot on each boat right?
To continue my blog....my husband almost did not tranfer to India!!! Some issues with business and offshore decisions. But all got resolved, and he is on his way to India this Friday! This is when the trial period starts! I am happy and sad too because I will not see him for 3 months :emcry: I hope that this is all worth it in the end. His parents are coming to stay with me next month. In 90 days, we will make our decision, to stay or R2I!!!
Wish us luck ;)
Keep adding to this post, otherwise I feel like I am all alone here writing to myself :emwink:
sardeb - My R2I (Chennai) Plan / diary
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 6:13 pm
by gshankar
Good luck Sardeb. Don't worry. Everything will fall into place.
sardeb - My R2I (Chennai) Plan / diary
Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2008 11:20 pm
by ILuvHyd
sardeb;86150 All said and done, you have to give up one side, can't have one foot on each boat right? [/quote]
Yes Sarden. One can't have the cake and eat it too :). Glad to know that that your husband's problem was resolved and he's ready to take the plunge. I wish you have a successful R2I.