r2i forum

Hi,

I am looking at taking up a job in Bangalore in near future if everything goes ok. The employer is not paying for relocation. I have a non-working wife and 3 year old with me, and we are originally from Mumbai. I am wondering what should we do to settle in Bangalore in initial days.

I can leave wife & kid in Mumbai with parents/in-laws till I settle. However we will have huge luggage with us (from USA). So when wife & kid come to Bangalore , I am not sure whether the domestic airline will allow boarding them with all the luggage. The distance from Mumbai to Bangalore is great enough so as not to consider ground transportation. Also most of the stuff with be personal, will be needed for settling phase, so cannot trust movers for that. The secondary stuff will be in a container and will get shipped to Bangalore from USA.

So we were thinking of flying directly to Bangalore from USA, and stay in temp housing before finding a rental place. In that case, what are our options? Can I rent service apartment, or should I look for decent hotel? What will be the typical cost? Do service apartments require lease too? Can we trust stranger's cooking as soon as we land in India :)

I have more questions. But let's start from these basic ones :) Thanks.

Well.. To begin with you need to decide which part of bangalore you want to settle.. Do you know where you'll be working?

Large baggage can easily be taken in domestic airlines by paying a baggage fee (i paid Rs 10-15 per kilo if i remember right). So that's not a biggie. So you may be better off going to Mumbai and spend 1-2 weeks at home before going to bangalore.

Depending on where you plan to stay in bangalore, there are lot of service apt which are nothing but furnished apts which you can rent by the day/week/month. Some may deliver food. There's no food prepared at home. In bangalore, there are not many hotels. If you are not too sure about long term plans, you can consider renting fully "furnished" flats. Otherwise, you are looking at couple of Lacs to buy household stuff.

We relocated to BLR 2 weeks ago.We do not have any family here.All 4 of us flew together from the US .We are right now staying in a service apartment in Brookefield.These are furnished apartments with a kitchen that is fully equiped.The breakfast and the high speed internet connection is included in the price.We cook lunch and dinner ourselves for the same reason that we don't want strangers cooking for the kids. The apartment does have a kitchen , so you can order breakfast and lunch for 100Rs per person. The shipmnet with our household stuff will arrive in September. The stay has been quite comfortable here.My husband's company had booked us here. The name is Sai Paryavaran House.

Hope this helps. PM me if you would like their phone number.

Hi rxb143,

If you don't mind, could you please share how much rent are you paying for this apartment?

Thanks

desipardesi;313023Well.. To begin with you need to decide which part of bangalore you want to settle.. Do you know where you'll be working?

Large baggage can easily be taken in domestic airlines by paying a baggage fee (i paid Rs 10-15 per kilo if i remember right). So that's not a biggie. So you may be better off going to Mumbai and spend 1-2 weeks at home before going to bangalore.

Depending on where you plan to stay in bangalore, there are lot of service apt which are nothing but furnished apts which you can rent by the day/week/month. Some may deliver food. There's no food prepared at home. In bangalore, there are not many hotels. If you are not too sure about long term plans, you can consider renting fully "furnished" flats. Otherwise, you are looking at couple of Lacs to buy household stuff.

The company has more than 1 location in BLR. I will ask them where exactly I will be working. In India, the people who interview you are not the same set of people you will be working with. So I am in dark so as to say.

I really do not have time to spend 1-2 weeks in Mumbai. They are asking me to join in a month post-offer. My wife & kid can spend some time in Mumbai. And I am weighing the pros/cons of that option.

A friend of mine had stayed in service apartment in BLR. He had a cook who used to come, and cook dinner for him. That's how I got the impression of home-cooked food. I guess there are different levels of service in service apartments. But we would prefer to stay in furnished service apartment till our stuff ships in BLR.

Thanks for sharing the cost of extra luggage. AFAIK the airline has right of way to deny the extra luggage or charge for it. It can go either way. Please correct me if I am wrong.

desipardesi;313023Large baggage can easily be taken in domestic airlines by paying a baggage fee (i paid Rs 10-15 per kilo if i remember right). So that's not a biggie.

Please, check, I believe it is 5 to 10 times that rate, these days.

We moved to B'lore recently. It took us about 10 days of work to get all the basics done - resident bank a/c, cell phone, DSL, lease agreement, basic furniture (bed/cot, sofas), private gas connection, fridge, washing machine, kitchen/bathroom and assorted items.

This was really full time work. The cell phone guys will want to come for address verification and you have to be home. They will not give you a time slot. The gas connection needs going to the dealer a couple of times. Same with bank a/c. The DSL guys came a total of 3 times to get it right. And that too after 9pm twice.

I guess what I am saying is - you have to plan for this time. If you start working right away it will be more time consuming to do things only on weekends.

PM me if you need any help here. I am also new to B'lore but have family here.

desipardesi;313023Large baggage can easily be taken in domestic airlines by paying a baggage fee (i paid Rs 10-15 per kilo if i remember right).

dbs;313634Please, check, I believe it is 5 to 10 times that rate, these days.

guruswAFAIK the airline has right of way to deny the extra luggage or charge for it. It can go either way. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Interesting. I am considering to go with ILuvHyd's suggestion, and flying business class to India so that I can maximize the checked-in luggage. Not finalized the plans. However it looks like more research is required before I really go down that route.

tornt;317786It took us about 10 days of work to get all the basics done - resident bank a/c, cell phone, DSL, lease agreement, basic furniture (bed/cot, sofas), private gas connection, fridge, washing machine, kitchen/bathroom and assorted items.

This was really full time work. The cell phone guys will want to come for address verification and you have to be home. They will not give you a time slot. The gas connection needs going to the dealer a couple of times. Same with bank a/c. The DSL guys came a total of 3 times to get it right. And that too after 9pm twice.

I guess what I am saying is - you have to plan for this time. If you start working right away it will be more time consuming to do things only on weekends.

I am thinking of moving into furnished service apartment till the container arrives. Meanwhile I will sign the lease so that we can move to the rented place and will have our basic furniture to use. Will this option require 2 weeks of settling time upon landing, OR a week to get cell-phone and other things is sufficient? Maybe I need at least a couple of days before joining to get rid of jet lag anyways. If the company is paying for relocation, will it allow me to stay in temp housing when I have not yet joined?

The other options is to stay in service apartment for 2 weeks or so, and meanwhile get the apartment on lease, take care of all the things you mentioned, and then join the job. But we won't have basic furniture in the apartment. In your opinion, what would be the efficient thing to do? This is again assuming the company has some flexibility in joining date. TIA.

My opinion -
Stay in service apartment for atleast 2 weeks. Join the company sooner and use the network in office to find out things.
USA-Mumbai-bangalore seems more jhamela ( cumbersome )

Stay in place close to work/new apartment so the area is similar.

You can definitely eat out at nice places, we do whenever we goto India. Service apartment will have kitchen, so can cook too if you like specially for the kid. Might be a good idea to call parents/in-laws so they can help with taking care of kid while you and wife can do the settling phase like looking for apartment/find a maid and other things.

If this does not sound feasible, then wife and kid goto Mumbai and come after you have found the place to live and made temporary arrangements.

Good luck.

find out if fying business class really let you carry that much check in baggage. We had business class but out baggage allowance was not that much I remember.

Are you talking about domestic India business class, then I dont know. Flying business class from USA to Bangalore can be v expensive if paid by yrself. I will rather use that money for settling down expenses during 1 month period like nice accomodation, eat out etc. Can feel like a vacation :-)