Things To Do Before You Leave

01 Nov 2022 - Tanmay Jha

Congratulations on the decision to move back. Moving to India is a logistical challenge, especially if you have been in the US for a few years. One important aspect of planning is creating fail-safes, i.e., methods to deal with mistakes/changes after you have already left the US. With that in mind, there are some things that you should try to do couple of months in advance -

  1. Maintaining your phone number
  2. Bank, Brokerage, Retirement and HSA accounts
  3. Credits Cards
  4. Mail forwarding
  5. Renew ID/DL
  6. NRE/NRO accounts

1. Maintaining your phone number/Two factor authentication

Two factor authentication can be a big headache when moving countries, since most institutions expect a local phone number for 2FA SMS. Here are some tips:

  1. Google Voice - Google Voice is a free service. You can port your cellphone number to Google Voice (one time $20 charge), and then it will become a VOIP number. You will be able to access calls and SMS via the Google Voice app (may be restricted outside the US), the website (seems to work everywhere) and get SMS forwarded to you as emails. I mostly rely on the last option, since it works flawlessly and reliably for OTP messages.

    • Note - While Google Voice works for the vast majority of services, there are some financial institutions which block VOIP numbers from their systems. The most notable one is Chase bank. For this reason, I recommend getting a second number via Ultramobile and maintaining it as a backup.

    • Note Regarding Short Codes - When you get SMS from most institutions, the caller id is a 5 digit number instead of a regular 10 digit phone number. These are short codes, and most VOIP numbers don’t guarantee operability with short codes. In practice, Google Voice seems to work with almost all short codes for receiving SMS other than Chase bank. A quick way to check if a particular short code works with GV is to send ‘HELP’ to that short code from your GV number. If you get a response back, then it works. For instance, Schwab’s short code for OTP is 94960. If you send HELP to this short code, you will get back an automated text.

    • Update Regarding Play Store Country Change - I changed my Google Play home country to India a couple of months after moving back. Google Voice continues to work flawlessy!

  2. Ultramobile - Ultramobile has a very affordable pay as you go plan (roughly $3 per month) which works great internationally. You have to order a sim from their Ebay store. It takes a few days to get delivered, so order it well in advance. Make sure to activate in the US and enable WiFi calling, and then add it to all your bank/brokerage accounts as secondary number. In case you later discover Google Voice doesn’t work for any of your accounts, you can use this number. Make sure to enable WiFi calling, since network coverage can be iffy outside the US and you don’t have to pay the international roaming rates on WiFi for sms/calls.

    • Note - Most financial institutions will let you add a secondary number, typically as a landline or office phone number. A few institutions will let you send 2FA texts to more than one number ( eg. Fidelity and CapitalOne), but they will let you receive verification calls on your second number. At the very least, if you call in to customer service with your secondary number, they can auto-verify you.

    • Comparison with Google Voice - Google Voice is free and accessible via the smartphone app/website, so you don’t need to carry an extra sim card with you everywhere. This is a big advantage since if you lose your sim card outside the US, its quite hard to get a replacement. Google Fi (discussed below) and Ultramobile won’t ship a replacement internationally, so if you lose the sim you will have to get it shipped to an American friend and then have them ship it to you after activation. That will be quite expensive. My advice is to get an Ultramobile sim before leaving so that you have a backup in case you discover any compatibility issues with GV once you have already left American soil. Leave it at home in a drawer, recharge it regularly and only use it as needed. Rely on Google Voice as your primary provider. If you are relocating to a country which restricts Google services (eg China), then Ultramobile may be the only cost effective option

  3. Google Fi - This is a cell phone carrier run directly by Google. Unlike Google voice, this is a real carrier. You get a sim card and the ability to place 911 calls even if you don’t have an internet connection etc. More importantly, this should work with all financial institutions unlike Google Voice. While it has great international connectivity, I don’t recommend it as a permanent solution. First, its quite expensive - roughly $27 per month after taxes with minimal usage. Second, Google Fi’s T&C explicitly bar you from using it internationally as its primary use. Based on all the anecdotes I found online, they will restrict your data access after a few months but you can keep using it for texts and calls over WiFi as long as you want. If you have an android phone, you can also enable a feature which lets you access your SMS online, similar to Google Voice. There is no WiFi calling support on iPhones, which is also a major negative.

    While Google Fi is not a great permanent option, it is a great temporary option, especially if you are leaving in a hurry. That is because it will let you at least maintain your phone number as a “real” (as opposed to VOIP) number for a few months, which lets you avoid disruption (in case your bank doesn’t support Google Voice). It also works very well internationally as long as you have an android phone. I personally purchased one of Fi’s subsidized android phones for $50 simply to keep my number alive for a few months. Once you are done with testing your banks compatibility with Google Voice, you can easily port your number to Google Voice from Fi. The process is very simple, and you get to avoid the $20 port in fees you have to normally pay if you port from say AT&T or T-mobile.

  4. Temporary number (T-Mobile connect) - If you are skipping Google Fi, and directly moving your number to Google Voice, then do it before you leave the country. It’s a little tricky to do it outside the US and you will need a VPN, unless you are doing the Fi -> GV transition. In this case, you will likely need a temporary phone number for mobile data for your last few weeks. If your phone supports an e-sim, I recommend T-Mobile Connect plans. You can pay from the app and download an e-sim, so you its pretty much instantaneous. Fairly affordable. They cant do international roaming though.

  5. Authy (2FA App) - Authy is a 2FA app like Google authenticator or Microsoft authenticator. Its one big advantage is you can use it across multiple devices simultaneously. If you have Google authenticator on your phone and you were to lose your phone, you lose 2FA capability. If you don’t have access to your phone number for resetting your 2FA app, you are screwed. With Authy, you can install it on your backup device too and you will just be able to continue using it from there. This is really convenient when you are not sure if you will continue to have access to your phone number.

Summary

So in a nutshell, here is the recommended flow. Port your primary number to Google Fi before you move, and then move it to Google Voice after a few months. Get a secondary number with Ultramobile PayGo, and add it to all your accounts. Once the port to Google Voice is done, you will only be paying $3 a month and have access to your primary number on Google Voice and a backup one on Ultramobile. Get a t-mobile connect number for your last few days, and use Authy for 2FA for as many accounts as possible.

2. Bank, Brokerage, Retirement and HSA accounts

Assuming you don’t have a green card or a US passport, your tax status will likely change to non-resident alien after you leave (typically starting the next tax year). This will affect taxation, whether you can keep your existing accounts open etc (read more in the Taxation and Regulations section). With that in mind:

  1. Open spare bank, brokerage and retirement accounts before leaving - Once you are a nonresident, most banks won’t let you open new accounts, and some will force you to close your existing accounts. Finding out which ones allow you to keep your existing accounts open is a crapshoot, and I personally had to spend a few hours on the phone with each bank to get an answer(Customer service typically doesn’t know, and they have to connect you to the back office). Having extra accounts gives you the flexibility to rollover funds/stocks in case one of your existing institutions closes your accounts.

    • Here are some that I know will let you keep a bank/brokerage/retirement account open as a nonresident:

      • Chase
      • Schwab One (there is some issue around non Schwab One accounts with Charles Schwab)
      • American Express Checking’s (but not savings)
      • First Tech Federal Credit Union
      • Fidelity (but your account will face some restrictions, which they are unable to describe)
      • Interactive Brokers (highly recommended as a brokerage account for non residents)
      • TD Ameritrade

    • Following banks/brokerages will ask you to close your account once you are a non-resident:

      • CapitalOne
      • Discover
      • American Express Savings
      • RobinHood
      • M1 Finance

    I would highly recommend opening bank, trading, and retirement(one each of Rollover IRA, Roth IRA and Traditional IRA) accounts with at least Schwab, IBKR and TD Ameritrade. If any of your current providers change their policies in the future, you want the option of rolling over your assets to a different provider. If you don’t have a secondary account (and at that point it will be pretty hard to open one as a non-resident), then you will have to liquidate and transfer your balances and that will involve tax bills around capital gains (and possibly locking in losses). If you are rolling over assets like stocks, make sure to specify you want an in-kind transfer so that your securities are rolled over as-is (without liquidation).

  2. Link your Ultramobile number to your banks as a secondary number
    • Note - IBKR and Ameritrade let you link an Indian phone number for 2FA

  3. Figure out a way to move money to India. I prefer ICICI’s Money2India but there are several alternatives like Remitly, Wise etc.

  4. Order debit cards and check books. Its quite hard to convince banks to ship these to India, and as a last resort you can use an international check to deposit money into your Indian accounts in case there are issues with normal channels

    • Schwab debit cards let you withdraw money anywhere in the world without any foreign transaction or ATM charges. Make sure to get one of these before leaving

  5. Note - you have to let your bank/brokerage know of your nonresident status via a Form W8-BEN. It is critical you do this correctly, since nonresident taxation affects how taxes are withheld. This is discussed in more detail in the Taxation and Regulations section.

  6. Special Note: Retirement accounts

    I will talk about this in greater detail in the Taxation and Regulations Section. Please consult a tax advisor specializing in non-resident taxation. Basically, if you are going to do a rollover from traditional to Roth, you might want to do it as a US resident. Once you are a non-resident, there is mandatory withholding while doing the rollover, and the withholding itself counts as a unqualified distribution so it will incur early withdrawal penalty.

  7. Special Note: Health Savings Account

    Roll over your HSA to a provider that does not charge maintenance fees (e.g. Fidelity). Sometimes this process requires you to sign and send forms, so best start it early. At least with Fidelity, the entire process was online but I had to call in since there was some backend issue. Fidelity also typically lets you upload scanned documents instead of mailing them physically. Further reading in the Taxation and Regulations section.

3. Credit cards

  1. Most US credit cards no longer work in India, even if they are marketed as having zero foreign transaction fees cards. This is due to RBI regulations, and your bank will be unable to tell you if your card will work in India or not.

  2. Get Amex cards with zero foreign transaction fees - In my experience, only American Express cards (directly issued by Amex, so not Bread Cashback) will work in India. This is because they use 2 factor authentication. While coverage is not 100% (not all websites accept them, and some point of sale machines don’t support amex), you still get ~70% coverage so it is still very useful if you haven’t transferred too much cash to India and wish to keep your money in dollars. Most importantly, they work on Amazon, Uber, Ola and BlinkIt. These form the bulk of my regular expenditures, so it’s quite useful to be able to use an American credit card here (at least initially). The exchange rates are extremely good, much better than normal bank transfer rates.

    • Update - Looks like some Mastercards are working again. My CapitalOne Platinum Mastercard is working in India now.

4. Mail Forwarding

  1. Ask a trusted friend/relative if you can use their address to forward some important mail. This is very useful at least temporarily, especially if they are in the same zip code. Update your address to theirs for any important subscriptions/accounts

  2. Set up USPS mail forwarding. This will automatically forward all your mail to the address you provide. This works for a year, and is a great way to catch any important things you forgot to update your address for.

  3. If you sign up for informed delivery, you will also receive a scan of any mail/packages addressed to you

5. Renewal ID/DL

Renew any expiring Drivers License/ID/credit cards before leaving if possible. This will save you some hassle if you move back within a few years

6. Open NRE account

If you don’t have a NRE/NRO account already, open one before you leave. It lets you hold money in INR with an Indian bank. The process is cumbersome and time consuming, so start early. I recommend you open an account each with ICICI and HDFC. You can start the process online. You will have to get notarized copies of several documents like passport, visa, proof of address etc. ICICI is happy with scanned copies, while HDFC arranges a physical pickup of notarized copies. Once you return permanently to India, you are required to convert your accounts to domestic bank accounts. The money in your NRE account will lose its repatriability once that is done, so it is a good idea to keep the bulk of your assets in the US and transfer it to a RFC Savings Account once you are an Indian resident.