My R2I (Hyderabad) Diary - Dil_Ki_Suno

[Dil_Ki_Suno]

Greetings friends!
Inspired by several members I am also making an attempt to post my R2I experience, hope that it will be useful to you guys. By the way I R2Ied on April 2nd 2007 so pardon me for posting a bit late.

Background:

I came to US in 2000 and stayed on H1B visa for 7 years. I applied for GC but it was of little significance as I was always sure that I will go back to India. The delays in GC process actually helped me avoid the confusion.

In our 7 years in US my wife and I both finished MBA; she was FT student while I completed an evening program. My wife also worked for few years and she too was on H1B visa when we R2Ied. Last year we were also blessed with a daughter born in US and thus a USC.

I am in the IT field and have mostly worked in the financial sector.

Reason to R2I:

For me the prime reason to come to US was to make some money and to broaden my professional exposure. I never intended to settle in US. Although we had some good Desi friends but probably due to lack of any close relative from my or my wife?s family in US we could never get that sense of belongingness in US. So basically strong family ties in India was the prime motivation to R2I. Moreover neither mine nor my wife?s career in US advanced to our satisfaction level may be because of Visa restrictions. So for us USA is great but our home was always in India.

R2I Preparation:

I would say in total we spent 1 year for winding up and planning for R2I. To initiate the process we uprooted ourselves from the city where we lived for 4-5 years. We rented a house, so selling house etc was not applicable. We sold one of our cars and transported the other. Sold most of the furniture and other house hold stuff. Thus we moved to a new city with a total of may be 10 suitcases and 5 medium sized boxes. We rented an apartment instead of house, bought stuff like TV, bed, couch etc for less than $1200 from Craigslist. (This cost was very low compared to what we would have spent in a furnished apartment). We spent another year in this apartment, but basically we were ready to R2I with a notice of a month or so.

Fortunately the job I took was stress free and my wife took a break and spent some quality time with our little one. After 3-4 months I started looking out for job.

Searching for Job:

I think it is not a cake walk to get a job in India while sitting in US, but it is doable with focused effort combined with some luck. I was looking for a job just to place my foot in India so had set my expectations accordingly. Going to India without a job too was not a preferred option. I did not float my resume to Naukri etc but instead used my contacts and friend circle to search for job. I used Dice and monster to find companies which are starting operation in India. As I said it was time consuming affair but was fruitful. Luckily I had 3 offers within 4-5 months of job search.
[LIST=1]

I got one offer from Dice, the offer was good, it was a startup company, and pay was acceptable to me. The only reason I had to pass was that they were asking me to be ready for long hours until the company is up and running. I though with R2I challenges this demanding job might be asking for too much.

I got another offer from a friend?s reference; the company was in a smaller city and was a small sized company. The salary was acceptable per the living standard of the city. I really liked the job a lot; it was a forerunner until I got another job. One of the reasons I had to pass this was that my wife was hesitant on moving to smaller city. I still feel I should have taken this job; it was really hard to decline this offer.

This was arguably the best offer; it was from a MNC and in my domain area, salary was better than other two. The company was based in Hyderabad, which was our 2nd preferred R2I city. The job was very similar to what I was doing in US so there was less likelihood of long hours. For these reasons I accepted this offer. [/LIST]All of the companies were offering relocation package; the best deal was from No 3.

It took another 2-3 months to finalize the offer and get things cleared up. There were some delays and anxious moments but eventually things worked out.

Selling/Packing and Shipping:

We were sure of not taking lot of stuff back from US. Actually we were prepared even to return with only six suit cases. Now as the company was giving some assistance in shipping we decided to buy and ship some stuff. We bought a 50 inch Plasma TV, Big over head Microwave, Good quality toys, diapers, High end PC and Monitor. In addition to this I also shipped ONKYO home theatre system and anything which we had like living room or kitchen gadgets. In all we ended up with around 25 odd boxes < 100 cubic feet shipment.

So for this LCL shipment, we chose sky2C (will post shipping experience later). I would like to convey my special thanks to the members here for helping us decide what to take, how to pack etc, without the posting here it would have been impossible for us to buy usable things at such short notice.

We were able to sell our car, sold it to one of my friend, it was easy as the car was not really expensive and was in a reasonably good shape.

Got the passport and PIO card for my daughter on time, again HUGE thanks to members here, you guys are life savers.

So we were all set, got the tickets and were ready to venture into a new city in our motherland. The excitement to return back was at times over shadowed by the news and discussions of dark realities of India. I was in US when I got married, so we had no experience of setting up a house or living as a family in India.

While boarding the United Airlines flight to Hyderabad via Frankfurt although we felt relieved but at the back of our mind we were scared of the uncertain battle a head of us.

I will continue my story in the next episode so stay tunedJ, send any questions you may have, and thanks again to you guys for helping me on various fronts with the plethora of information. I hope to pay it back with whatever resources I have/may have.

Regards,
DKS

[DoctorJ]

Greetings friends!
Inspired by several members I am also making an attempt to post my R2I experience, hope that it will be useful to you guys. By the way I R2Ied on April 2nd 2007 so pardon me for posting a bit late.
[/quote]
Hearty Congratulations!!!
Hope things work out for you guys...Good Luck!
[quote]
Now as the company was giving some assistance in shipping we decided to buy and ship some stuff. We bought a 50 inch Plasma TV, Big over head Microwave, Good quality toys, diapers, High end PC and Monitor. In addition to this I also shipped ONKYO home theatre system and anything which we had like living room or kitchen gadgets. In all we ended up with around 25 odd boxes < 100 cubic feet shipment.
[/quote]
It will be nice if you could post more on your shopping experience...this will have a special significance since it looks like you did it in a short span of time. If it's not asking too much, I'd request you to write about shopping TV, microwave, quality toys, furniture (if any) - things like...which brand? how much? where did you buy? which other brands were compared? would you recommend the same for others? etc.
[quote]
So for this LCL shipment, we chose sky2C (will post shipping experience later). [/quote]
We'll wait to hear from you on this as well....

In the meanwhile, I'm sure people like me would be curious about your first choice place for R2I (which place are we talking? Is it your native place?) as also your experiences in Hyderabad.
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Dil Ka Sunliya...Dimak ka Kya Haal Hai??? -DJ :cool:

[haari_mirch]

Congratulations and good luck!

[Chicago Desi]

Wonderful post. Congrats, good luck and please keep us posted.

[b2b]

Great post...good luck....let's know more once you are settled in....

[cool_r2i]

Congratulations!
Thanks for the post. This is a very well written post and the style of narration is very good and also informative!

[LLLLWhenR2I]

Cool....
Another great post.....
Heartiest congratulations....

One thing is not clear to me about transportation of your car. In US its the LHS driving...and India doesn't permit to import LHS driving cars unless modified.

Could you be more elaborate on this inclusing customs duty etc.

Thanks.

[Chicago Desi]

Cool....
Another great post.....
Heartiest congratulations....

One thing is not clear to me about transportation of your car. In US its the LHS driving...and India doesn't permit to import LHS driving cars unless modified.

Could you be more elaborate on this inclusing customs duty etc.

Thanks.[/quote]

That transportation was within the US to their new location. Not to India. They sold this car before moving back.

[DosaiLvr]

d_k_s,

hope you found your rainbow! :emrainbow:

good luck! -- DL

[ggrajan]

In all we ended up with around 25 odd boxes < 100 cubic feet shipmentRegards,
DKS

I am curious to know how much it costs to ship your packages? Your post is very helpful for me. Thanks.

Also, please elaborate about DICE searching. I thought DICE is only for US companies.

-GGR