This is the exciting and scary part for most of us. For me, it was the first plane experience, first trip outside of India and first trip without my family. There were many questions in my mind as well.
As soon as you get your visa and tickets, you are ready to go to the United States of America. There are few things that you should keep in mind before making your first trip to the far away country.
• Tickets: Although you can book from any airline, be sure to check the luggage policy of that airline. Choose the airline which allows two check in bags 23 Kg/50 pounds each and carry 8-12 kg. I advise you not to use travel agents for that, one of my friends booked his ticket from a travel agent in Delhi, and when he was trying to do the online check 2 days before his flight, he found out that his ticket was fake and he had to buy the emergency costly tickets. Try to book your tickets as soon as you get your visa, earlier you book them, the cheaper they will be.
• Phone: Don’t worry about buying a new sim card, its super easy to buy a new sim card in any local store in USA. They don’t even ask for your ID and you can get one in about 25-30$ with one month of unlimited calls, texts, 4G 1GB internet and international free texts. It will be easily available at any local store, so don’t try to buy it from the airport, they will charge you 150-200$ for the same thing. For international calling, there are many options: IndiaLD, BABA, Raaz, Skype credit, Google credit etc. They are very cheap and affordable.
• Bank account: Most of the people try to get an international SBI or HDFC or ICICI account, they are completely useless, it’s very easy to open a bank account in USA based on the documents you get from hospital, and it will be very helpful to you in the long run (like paying for USMLE fees, ECFMG fees, MATCH fees). “Bank of America” has many hidden charges with minimum account maintenance of some 1500$, I would recommend having a “CHASE student check in account”, with zero maintenance fee, no hidden charges and no need to maintain minimum balance in your account. You will get your debit card the same day and all the transactions in USA happens with your card so no need to carry more than 20$ in your pocket at a time.
• Driving: If you are going to a place like New York or Chicago, the public transport is very good, you don’t need to drive at all. But if you are going to a place like Kansas, Virginia, West Virginia, Houston then you need to have a car to go around places, don’t worry you don’t need to buy a car on your first trip, you just need to carry a drivers license in case you need to rent a car (easily available and affordable) or you can borrow from a friend. There are many ways to be eligible for driving in USA and it varies from state to state. The best thing is if your Indian License is in English language, then you can apply for “International Driving Permit” and can drive for the duration of your stay with your Indian License, IDP and passport in your car while driving. Alternatively, you can apply for something called International Drivers license, that will replace all the above three documents into a single thing.
• Identification: It will be hard to keep your passport with you all the time, and you need an ID to drink a beer in the bar. The easy solution for that; make an “International student ID card” from India, I got mine from Connaught place, New Delhi. It will cost you around Rs200 and it will give you many student discounts at many stores, shops and theatres in USA.
Website: www.isic.co.in
• Packing: I made lots of mistakes while packing when I first went to USA, so take my words, don’t pack too many clothes or shoes, just 4 pairs of clothes and 2 pairs of shoes are enough. The things that you should take with you are medication for common illnesses (get a prescription with you). If you are on medication, then take tons of them (they are hell expensive in USA), spare pairs of glasses, some spices if you are going to cook food, some books that you want to read during electives (I was missing Kundu and Makhan Lal Saha during my electives). All the very important documents and their copies (photocopying is expensive like a $ for a page).
• Money: This varies from person to person, like where you are going to stay, what you are going to eat, I must say 1300-1600$ a month is the average cost. The housing is gonna cost you 700-900$ per month and food is expensive as well (40-50$ a day if you are going to eat outside). If you have a bank account in USA, you can always ask your parents to send you more money via electronic transfer in your account. The first time you will be carrying all the cash with you, don’t forget to take a bill of that cash from a reliable agency like Thomas Cook and deposit all the cash in the bank account the next day you reach there.
• Food: It’s a very big problem for me in USA, if you are a cook then it’s a BIG plus for you in USA, if you are at a big place like New York, chicago, Houston then you don’t have to worry about (if you have plenty of money), there are many carts/street food in NY, another alternative is to buy frozen food from jackson heights (Patel Brothers) in NY, you can also get frozen cooked food and frozen chapatis and parathas easily.The best thing would be to cook for 2-3 days at home and eat it by microwaving and freezing it repeatedly. That’s the most affordable thing. Every place in USA has a freezer and a microwave. During your time in the hospital, you can have lunches in very cheap price for doctors (6-8$) so that will be the best but you will have to arrange something for dinner.
• At JFK: There will be another interview at port of entry, it will be pretty straightforward, once you are done with that, you will be out of the scary part. Now you need to have a change of 5$ for luggage cart and 40-50$ cash for taxi. So do remember to take change with you while you carry money. For foreign currency, exchange I prefer (Thomas cook), it is one of the most reliable agencies and it also gives you bills for your money.
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