Checklist: Things To Do Before Returning To India

There are a few things you should take care of before moving back to India. This checklist mostly applies to people returning to India from USA but some of it also applies to NRIs from other countries.

Communication

• Get a Google Voice Number, preferably more than one so in case one gets discontinued you have a backup. Setting up Google Voice requires a working US number so it is required that you do this while you are in the US.
• Set up the USPS forwarding service to send all your future mail to a relative or a friend.

What to do with your stuff?

Buy 

• Expensive electronics (DSLR, Playstation, iPhones). Use the transfer of residence clause to bring more stuff to India. For most NRIs who have stayed for a long duration, you can bring goods up to Rupees Five Lakhs without customs duty. Check the rules and exceptions carefully before deciding since the limit is based on your tenure of stay outside India and the items involved.
• You get most of the stuff in India nowadays with little difference in pricing when you account for the space that stuff will occupy or the cost of shipping it.

Sell

• Sell your car: I used Carvana to sell my car. The price I got was more than I could have had I sold to dealerships but less than a third party. I valued the hassle-free experience over a few hundred dollars. Carvana picked up my car from my house and the money was transferred the next day.
• Don’t forget to cancel your car insurance and car registration. In Massachusetts, I was able to cancel the registration online.
• Sell the smaller appliances. Don’t sweat the small stuff and try to get the best price. You have limited time and you should try to make the best of it. I found good success on the Facebook marketplace when selling my stuff.

Ship

We donated most of the stuff that we couldn’t sell to Goodwill. We did not find anything that was worth shipping that could justify the cost and effort involved. The only exceptions I can think of are things that hold emotional value to you (your first purchase when you were setting up the house or an item that you bought from the first trip you took in the US). Usually, furniture and TVs are not worth shipping due to the risk of damage and customer duty hassles. Universal Relocations has been the most recommended shipping company but I don’t have any personal experience with them.

Documents

• Make sure your passport is valid for at least the next 6 months. If not, renew it.
• Save copies of all your immigration documents and file the originals.
• Save copies of your pay stubs, increment letters and performance reviews.
• Save your tax returns. You can always download it if you have an account on the IRS website. But, it is a good idea to have them handy.

Finance

Bank Accounts

• Open bank accounts with banks that support international addresses (for example: Bank of America, Chase). You will not be able to open new accounts once you become a non-resident.
• Enable the check deposit feature on the mobile app.

Brokerage Accounts

• Open IRA/Roth IRA account depending on what you plan to do with your 401K account.
• Ask your brokerage provider if non-resident accounts are supported. I know that Fidelity & Charles Schwab support international addresses. I have personal experience with Fidelity and their service has been great.
• Check the way to bypass two-factor authentication in case your Google Voice number stops working. Most brokerages have authenticator apps that do not need an active phone number. I recently set up VIP Symantec by calling Fidelity.

Credit Cards

• Redeem your reward points for cash or whatever other offer you find attractive.
• Decide which credit cards to keep and which ones you will close. I had personally decided to keep all my cards but Discover and Amex ended up closing my cards since they do not ship the cards internationally. I have my Bank of America card active and running.

For more details on maintaining accounts, refer to – How to manage your accounts in USA after returning to India?

HSA

• Ask your HSA provider about charges of account maintenance. Consolidate or move your account to a more non-resident-friendly company (for example: Fidelity).
• Ask your HSA provider if the card can be used in India for qualified medical expenses.

Taxes

• Plan your move-back date (considering the tax implications and residential status in both USA and India). In general, if you move in Jan of any year, you would be a non-resident in the US for that year and NRI in India for the FY ending in March. The RNOR (Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident) status in India will generally start after March (if you qualify). If you move after Jan, you will be treated as a resident in the US and the US will tax your global income. You will not end up paying double taxes due the the Double Tax Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) between USA and India but your income tax returns will be more complicated since you will need to avail foreign tax credit.
• Make an online account at the IRS website (in case physical mail does not reach you, this will be a good place to find any audit/check details). IRS uses a service called ID.me for identification verification.
• Make sure to take care of all the tax liabilities with the IRS.
• Ask your current CPA whether they file taxes for non-residents. Some CPAs strictly do only resident returns and if yours does not, you might have to find a different one.

Money Transfer

• Sign up for multiple money transfer services (Xoom, Remitly etc.).
• Submit documentation so they can increase your per-transfer and per-month limit.
• If you are married, make accounts in your name as well as your spouse’s so you have that much additional limit. This turned out to be very handy for us when we wanted to transfer large sums of money for a property purchase.

General

• Inform your landlord/property management company and establish timelines for getting the security deposit back and inspections.
• Inform the gas/electricity provider that you will be moving. Set the cancellation date to be a few days after your planned flight.

While handling so many things, don’t forget to make time for some memories. It’s easy to get lost in the entire process to optimise every single thing. Accept that you will probably miss a few things. Try to take care of the most important stuff and don’t stress yourself out. Selling my first car took an emotional toll on me. I stood near the porch while they loaded my car and towed it away (in hindsight it felt not too different from a father seeing his daughter off at her wedding, pretty dramatic!). It evoked feelings of emptiness and it hit me that we are actually going ahead with the decision of moving back to India.

We had a ton of things to take care of in the last few days but we still visited our favourite places to eat and did our usual evening walks on the trails. We rented a car and drove an hour one-way to our favourite ice cream shop (if you are in Boston, do check out Kimball Farms). In your last few weeks, so many memories just come rushing to you once it sinks in. Process these feelings and enjoy your last few days in the country (at least for the time being!) – you will cherish these memories for a long time.