The Final Arrival!!
Finally landed in Melbourne yesterday.
The plane journey
12:15 AM Hyderabad
Landed in KL airport as scheduled.
Short layover in KL 2 hours.
KL to melbourne was 8 hours. At 8:30 PM melbourne time
The Arrival:-
Got of the flight at 8:30 PM local time took SkyBus till southern cross(19.75 AUD) and booked an Uber(16.49 AUD) from there to my accommodation in St.kilda.
Note:
You cannot pay with cash on Uber in Melbourne.
Ironically all my first interactions with Melbournians have been in Hindi.
It was late by the time i arrived almost 10:30 the only thing open was an indian grocery and a pizza place. So we walk into the pizza place
Me:- Hi Good evening!!
SHopkeeper:- Boliye kya chiye sir??
In a pizza place! In Melbourne!!
One thing i love about this place, it's really easy to walk, nice paved footpaths.
I used to walk a lot when i first started working and was dependent of public transport.
Now i feel i can get back to that here in Melbourne.
No more smoky polluted/Dusty streets, i love it.
Had to do some Prep before i landed here. Just want to share it here so that it helps out people
The Story so far.
After the validation trip i got my myki card and bank account activated. They said that they would mail it to my overseas address, but it never came.
Had to contact the customer care again to get a replacement card. This time asked them to keep the card at the branch itself so that i can collect when i arrive permanently.
With CommBank you get the card directly on the day of your activation itself. so if with NAB be prepared.
Later heard from a lot of people that i should get my savings bank converted to NRO/NRE account.
The NRE/NRO Experience:-
the first question that popped in my head
Q:-Why?
A:-There are certain advantages
Any money we send from overseas is not taxable if we put it into the NRE account.
Point to note about NRE account it can accept only overseas transfers
The NRO account is the account which can accept transfers from local Indian accounts and all interest generated in the NRE account is taxable.
So basically we just maintain a min balance in the NRO account
and transfer our savings into the NRE account from onshore
I already had a salary account with Kotak and decided to go with them as i was satisfied with their services.
Needless to say the service was pretty smooth.
I did have a few hiccups along the way but everything got sorted out eventually.
The customer care was great.
The only documents they needed were, well.. Everything!!
PAN/Aadhaar/Passport copy/Driving license/VISA Grant letter
The issue i faced was with my address, all documents except my driving license were not having the proper address hence there was a delay in the account creation. So be clear as to what address that you want to put
The Provident Fund Experience:-
Also, thanks to our group i was able to sort out the issues i had with my pf before moving to Australia
My organisation had created a duplicate UAN for me. So now the onus was on me to get that rectified.
But thankfully with the advice of the people in this group and the advent of digital india i was able to get it sorted out.
I think that process in itself deserves another article
I was unable to link my UANs because my name in my older UAN was not matching with my AADHAAr , and my name in PAN was not matching with my AADHAAR.
Step number one.
Correct details in PAN Card.
I visited the place where they do this update of pan cards and got it updated. So my name got updated and i received my pan card in two weeks time.
Step number two
Then with my older company, i asked them to update my name. Sent them the details with my new pan card and aadhaar details. They took about a week to approve that and update it. And i added my AADHAAR card also to my old UAN
Step number three
Once old UAN details got updated, i was able to use the one member one EPF account option on the EPFO website to merge my old UAN with the existing one.
This process of merging the UAN was done in 3-4 weeks. I was pleasantly surprised Digital India seems to work.
But one downside of this is that, i am unable to do a partial withdrawal. As my service history is limited to the present UAN, which has a service history of only 2 years. My older service history is lost.
But i did get my amount transferred into my UAN.
Bank account check, PF check. Forex card/remittance -Next Up
Remittance and foreign currency Experience:-
There are as usual multiple ways that this can be done.
The two that i chose were Forex card and bank transfer.
For Forex cards i went with the same provider that I had used for my validation trip.
BUYFOREXONLINE.com
Next day delivery of both forex card and online top up of forex card were the things that attracted me the most and the document verification was all online. Which is pretty much the case with everyone these days. Thumbs up for Digital India!!!
I chose two ways because "never put all your eggs in a single basket" was a quote that was drilled into my head. Because i have a tendency to lose things, I am what you call a forgetful person. So multiple fail safes are the norm in my life
So, part of my funds i transferred to the Forex card and partly to the bank account. Just so that we have a fail safe.
Now for the bank account transfer, I used Instarem. Instarem is kinda like Transferwise only but you can send money from India to Australia. Not as fast as Transferwise, but nevertheless cheaper than Buyforexonline for remittance.
Transferwise does not operate yet in INDIA. As in, you cannot send money from India to Australia using Transferwise.
The usual documentation is required, PAN card, Passport which will just have to be uploaded digitally and once they validate your account you can get started right away.
One thing i noticed, is that as soon as you do the transfer into their account, if you send an email to
support@instarem.com with your bank statement indicating the transfer attached, it really speeds things up.
And you can lock in the exchange rate when you initiate transfer in Instarem.
I just used Transferwise today for sending money to my NRE account and their service was really good. Almost instant remittance of funds during business hours.
Don't know how it is when done during off business hours. Will have to check that soon.
Accomodation:-
I initially i booked an Airbnb apartment. For a week after which i will be looking for rooms to stay in Melbourne.
Gumtree is a great place to search for shared accommodation and that is what i would have gone ahead with.
But my brother saved me at the last moment.
He has a friend in Brisbane who i can stay with. So probably if nothing materializes here in Melbourne for this week, I will move to Brisbane.
That's the update so far ladies and gentlemen.
I will come back to you further with any updates in case time permits.
Until then I humbly take your leave
Let me know if anyone wants to join this whatsapp grou. DM me so that i can send you the link.
Note:
This article has not been sponsored by KOTAK/INSTAREM/TRANSFERWISE/BUYFOREXONLINE.com.
I am not trying to sell you anything.
This is my experience alone which i am sharing with you all.
Logging Out!! Peace!!!