The common question - when is the right time for R2I?

Guess this is one of the most common questions in the mind of prospective R2Is - when is the right time to do R2I? Most of the people don't want to discuss about this until their R2I plans are firm. With the 1+ year syndrome(if you are not familiar the 1+ year syndrome - this is where people plan for R2I during 'next year' and next year keeps getting pushed out by a year at a time!), it is always bit difficult to say for sure when you will R2I and discuss with friends circle. 


There is no one single answer to the question  - when is the best time to do R2I? but in some cases, it is very clear that you have to take the decision or forget about it. I have tried outlining few cases below:


1. Few years in US, have H1, no green card yet: It is unlikley this category of folks are reading about R2I yet!. If you have decided that you will be back in India, then your timeframe is basically on completion of H1. Path to green card and citizenship is a loooong one (trust me, this won't change that easily) and unless you have started early on, this will make the wait agonosizing. But, if you are close enough, well worth the wait to complete that process first before planning for R2I.


2. Several years in US, have green card, no citizenship: You have already stayed several years, why not complete citizenship and move once for all? Keeping the green card active while in India is a struggle (have seen several friends doing that, doing back & forth and spending their own $$ from pocket). Better to stay put while planning for R2I like booking an apartment, decide on work location, schools etc. This might get tricky if you have grown up kids since it is much more difficult for grown up kids to come back and adjust to Indian environment.


3. Several years in US, have green card, citizenship but single: Have to say you wouldn't find many people in this category, with the timeframe it takes to move from H1 to green card and citizenship. If you in this category, it is much more easier to decide - basically, whenever you want to is the time frame. Might be easier to find a partner once you are back here!


4. Several years in US, have green card, citizenship, married with smaller kids: Smaller kids here means within the age of 6-7 years. If you are satisfied with the savings and think you are ready for R2I, this is the right time. Smaller kids tend to forget things and adjust  to the newer environment quickly than older kids(see next point). They learn the new food habits, enjoy the ceremoinies and mix well with kids here. Their English gets indiginized much more quickly than older kids, without they being aware.


5. Several years in US, have green card, citizenship, married with grown-up kids: This is the case of now or never. Main points to consider in this case are - kids school, how used to US culture the kids are and how flexible they are in accomodating changes. Once kids are 10+ years, they won't forget how things are in US (serioulsy, there is no comparision!) and will always think US is better - won't argue with the logic in-terms of facilities, cleanliness, structure, discipline etc. The value of staying closer to immediate family members is not visible immediately and it takes a good amount of time to establish the bonds. Hence, if your kids are older than 12 years or so, it might be bit late. However, if they have grown up learning the mother tongue, have very good exposure to Indian environment etc, it could work out. But, try to have some discussions with the kids - they are old enough to provide their feedback. They might have good amount of negative feelings based on their short stays in India during vacations but ask them to look beyond that. 


If you are still confused, take the the  assessment and evaluate yourself here:
http://r2idiaries.blogspot.in/2011/12/r2i-or-nr2i-not-to-r2i-dilemma-take.html

Appreciate your feedback and comments, please leave a comment if you found this post useful (or not!) ... 

R2I in 2012? What you should be doing now ?

Hope this helps some of you who are already in the process of doing R2I in 2012 or still debating about it :-)


By now, many of the things should have been completed. Some of the things in this list are:

• If you have school going kids, should have settled with admission of the kids - if the school needs   kids to take the tests, you should have settled on a date as well.
• Should have finalized relocation with Employer or pretty much settled on a new job.
• Shortlisted the place where you would like to stay, based on work location, school etc. Even better, have shortlisted few apartments and have initiated process on getting an apartment once you land here.
• Have shortlisted the shipping company and have worked out the logistics - when they will pick-up, how much space you need etc.
• Have started packing the items you want to ship - separating the ones you don't need immediately versus the ones you need in short term.
• Have pretty much sold of the items that you don't need. Also, have made the cars ready for sale and possibly have shortlisted buyers. It would be good to get a buyer who can wait until you leave. If not, renting option is always there.

Of course, there are lots of other things to be done. Look into my blog entry for the sample checklist of TODOs:

http://r2idiaries.blogspot.in/2011/09/sample-checklist.html 

Appreciate your feedback and comments, please leave a comment if you found this post useful (or not!) ... 

The BIG question - will India be an economic tiger? ...

This is a very relevant post for would be R2Is. Just prepared this post today and to my surprise, saw this article in one of the newspapers. Below are my thoughts which I jotted down today, followed by the link to the article that I read ...


Does this mean you should reconsider your R2I decision? Absolutely not!. These are things which you can't control and R2I decision is the one on which you have control. Hope for the best and make the move if you are inclined to do it. Take the assessment that I provided earlier, if you are confused about which way to go ...
http://r2idiaries.blogspot.in/2011/12/r2i-or-nr2i-not-to-r2i-dilemma-take.html

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My thoughts:

This is a multi-trillion dollar question to which I think anybody has a clear answer but looking at the trends, you can try to make some guesses. Based on what I have seen so far after being out of India for several years, it is a possibility but not a strong one. Why - the mentality for common growth(which moves the country towards common prosperity) and the longer term vision is missing in general, all over the place. The growth that is happening is random and is not structured. For example, you would see a nice flyovers being built but in all the wrong places. It seems like the decision of putting a flyover there came out of not just congestion reason but due to other factors like a contractor's influence, possibly bribes etc. When beautiful lakes, which feed the ground water resources on which cities are heavily dependent, are laying in shambles and getting encroached, you think what is wrong in people's mind - isn't that obvious that you are harming yourself slowly in the process? Definitely people know that but why worry about the long term when you can make some profits in the near term? Country is spending lots of money on infrastructure development but if not done right, that is just tax payers money wasted, with no real development taking place. 

Not to say there aren't any bright spots, Anna Hazare's movement being one example and there are several others. The educated youth want a change but their number is still small. These will be like drops in a bucket - unless there is a strong government that supports such changes, things won't change anytime soon. Private industries are coming (the saying you might have heard - 'everything is available now in India', which is very much true) and changing the scenario but the common theme of rich getting richer and poor staying there or becoming even poorer continues. 

Other thing is about the opening up of doors to private and international players - does that help? Not quite sure. For example, we have started seeing MacDonalds every other corner these days. But the price of a veg burger - Rs. 55. Price of a 6'' sandwich in Subway - Rs. 170. When the techies double think about going to these places, you can imagine about common man. Bottom line - the international players are here to make money and how they would help the country's growth is questionable. Of course, they are creating jobs but that won't have a large impact and there is only so much they can do about infrastructure development.
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Link to the article that talks about a similar study ...
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/232677/india-superpower-unlikely-says-lse.html
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What grandma said ...

It is great that our kids great grandma is around and our kids and we get to meet her - she was wisdom of several decades! It was interesting to hear a comment about families now and made me think a bit. She said 'parents and kids now are not as close as they used to be before'. She said - you can do whatever for your kids but at the end of the day, they won't be around you. I think there is lots of truth to it - not a fault of kids or parents. Compared to old times, now kids spend more time in-front of TV, with other kids, doing homework etc and are more independent. Plus, the job markets have expanded and it is unlikely that kids will stay around parents when they grow up.

How does this relate to R2I? Well, one of the main reason for R2I for most of the folks is spending more time with parents and family. I think the social environment in India promotes that and kids get exposed to that. Compare this with Western world, where kids are expected to get out of home by the time they are 18, we still have the environment here where bonds between kids and parents lasts longer. Sure, it is changing, as grandma observed but fortunately not all gone.

for a change ...

During school break in December, got a chance to visit Vizag and Orissa. Knew about the Konark Temple all the time but wasn't aware of the rich heritage and beautiful temples in Orissa. Some pictures below ...

Always heard bad things about Indian Archeology department  but looking at these places, I do think these places are well maintained and entry fees are kept so low. In Bhuvaneswar caves, I did see them scrubbing the cave walls to remove graffiti. One thing they could do better is - restrict access to all of the areas like cave walls so that visitors won't mess up things ...