Moving to India - a bunch of questions

Nick-H

...he's coming long-term, and shipping furniture in, so yes, he needs to register.

My problem was with the letting me register before six months was over!

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Oyar

Cars on hire are expensive in india. What sort of car are you looking at? It would be far more economical for the company to buy a car & then sell it off after 3 years.

HighAir

European cars are far to expensive I guess. Looking for a middle class SUV, something like the Nissan X-Trail or similar.

Hemmie

Just a little warning about customs, you might run into the same problem as we did. My husband started a branch office here last year. Of course, we arrived in India a week before the company was officially set up, and therefore we couldn't get an employment visa yet, only a business visa for 6 month. That later turned out to be a huge problem, we couldn't register, and therefore couldn't import our furniture without customs duties. We were told these would be very high, so for 2 months we tried to get a bank guarantee to avoid it. When we finally got this, it was refused, and we ended up paying anyhow. However, they only made us pay a much lower amount, had we known this all along, we would have paid immediately!
So, in case you can't get an employment visa yet, be aware of such problems.

Oyar

Go for the Honda CRV. An excellent vehicle. Nissan X-trail would be decent too .. but lacks service backup in India.

Renwaa

You can also try the Mahindra Scorpios. We have a 2006 and it's great. We have a driver and he runs us about $150US a month.

As for rent, you can find a decent place--maybe even newly remodeled---if you want a small 2 bedroom. We just got our aparment and the biggest issue we found was size of the living/dining room (lounge) were very small for our American furniture but we also have 2 kids so we were looking for more open spaces. We did eventually find (for over 120,000/month ouch!) a place with 200sq meters, but it was shocking what they were showing us for close to $5k/month. The apt owners are totally ripping off the expats. It is borderline criminal. Many bldgs we saw are in crap condition (why don't people here take care of their common areas?) and it's laughable they want extortion prices for places that are just as crappy. We saw places that didn't even really have a kitchen for these rates in Bandra and Santa Cruz and were completely filthy. There was nothing that made these some kind of "special" find either other than perhaps the one apartment being in Bandra. There are lots of new bldgs going up so try to see if apartments in those bldgs are avail to rent. We saw quite a few brand new places that were superb, but the lounges too small for us.

The apartment search was by far the most difficult part of being here. Thank goodness it is over so brace yourself. I can get you the name of our agent who really worked hard if you want it.

Overall, we just got here a month ago and are totally loving it in Mumbai. Bandra is where it's at. Great shops, great restaurants, good time.

HighAir

Thanks for your post. They are all very helpful!

Hemmie, thanks for the hints regarding the customs. I think I will already have my employment visa when I arrive in Mumbai and thus I should be able to register myself and thus I hope I will not face these problems. However, it is India where I am going to, so if this specific problem will not occur, there will for sure be another problem coming up :-)

Regarding the cars I already looked at the Indian cars. I really like the Mahindra Scropio, too. The Tata Safari Dicor does not look too bad, too. Anyway I will have to wait and see which budget the company will announce for a car…
Does anybody here know whether there is a navigation system available for Mumbai?

Finding a flat will for sure be the biggest adventure at the beginning. I already heard a lot about real estate brokers and the flats they present to expats. However I although got a lot of useful hints how to deal with these guys and I already have some people in Mumbai who I know, business partners of mine. So hopefully their contacts may be an additional help.

Another question: Does anybody know how much the Waterstone Country Club charges? Are there other nice clubs in Bandra and surrounding areas? What do they charge?

abhi182

ummm..actually not..electronics in India tend to be far cheaper than the UK (though not as cheap as US)
Check www.satguide.in
The maps they have are OK, not great though and you will have to use a combination of the nav system + common sense rather than blindly trusting the driving directions

Renwaa

According to the information we have, the charges are like this:

Corporate Membership:
Membership fee
1 Executive: Rs. 1,65,000
1 Executive Family: Rs2,75,000
4 Executives: Rs6,00,000
4 Executive Family: Rs10,000,000

Individual Membership
Individual: Rs1,65,000
Family: Rs2,75,000

There are also charges for use of the tennis court and facilities within, but they are pretty cheap so not to worry. Even the tennis coach is only 250Rs/hr!

Went up last Saturday for the tour and it was super. My husband has colleagues who drive up every morning before work (in Parel) who work out for an hour and he lives in Bandra.

We just showed up and they took us on a tour. We may wait and see how the rains are before committing to it just to see what the water is like here. No sense paying for some place we can't get to or can't use the great pool if it's raining all the time (family membership for us). I'm going to get a gym membership in Bandra (Gold's??) so there is a place I can get to quickly without having to wait for our driver to come back from taking my husband to work.

Renwaa

Don't know the prices of the UK, but we just bought the whole house full of stuff (fridge, microwave, washer, dryer, 46" Samsung LCD, 22" Samsung LCD, vacuum, coffeemaker, grinder, range, oven) and thought it was pretty reasonable---however, the televisions are definitely 30-40% higher than the States. Could be taxes, could be the amount sold in the US vs here, who knows. Hubby wanted a big tv this time so we expected to shell out. Been using a 25" the last 3 yrs in Panama that I bought in 1994!!

We went to Vijay Sales in Worli to get everything. They had a great variety and a nice 4 level shop. It is right next to Sony Mony which is also another electronics shop. There is a new Croma close to the big KFC on Linking Rd in Bandra, but we thought they had the more low end models of stuff, but it was also decent.

Vijay Sales is on a main road in Prabhadevi (is that considered Worli??) so a driver would know where it is. The prices we found checking out smaller stores and HyperCity or InOrbit were roughly in the same neighborhood. We bought from Vijay's because 1) our company suggested it and 2) found everything under one roof and 3) not too far away.

capt_mahajan

Nope.

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crvlvr

HighAir,

Welcome and congratulations on you new appointment. Have you ever been to India? If not, you may want to visit before deciding to be there for 3 years.

HighAir

Hey crvlvr,
I have already been in Mumbai. So I somehow know what to expect :-) Else it could really be a "surprise"...

Renwaa,
Thanks for the information. I do not have any experience in charges for clubs in Mumbai, thus please advise: Is this one of the higher priced ones? Calculating the charges back to USD I end at nearly 3800, this would be almost 320 / month?!

Hemmie

We are considering membership for after the monsoon. From what I hear from other expat families, this is one of the more expensive clubs, but it also offers more facilities, and food etc. are cheaper than when you would get a membership at any of the 5-star hotels.

HighAir

Thanks, Hemmie.

Are there other nice clubs in this area?