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Part II:
Now you have landed and wondering what are all things that have to be taken care of.
Following things may be helpful, if you come to US well prepared and Internet makes it
easier...
Getting an
Identity Card:
In US, usually everywhere you will be asked for a government issued photo
identity card, which has your signature on it. (e.g. you want to encash your traveler's
check). Passport will come handy for these purposes. But passport is a very valuable
document and you don't want to carry it everywhere you go. And its better to get
another photo identity card that is accepted in US. In all 50 states, you can get a
Identity card for say $5 - to $10. You can get these from Driver license offices. You can
find one of these offices near you. Just walk in and tell them you want "Identify
Card". This will be a cool credit card sized photo ID, with your local home address
on it. Also when you are there pick up a "Driver licenses Hand book". This books
contains all the information you will need to get a driver's license. Read the book
carefully and follow every single rule listed in the book. You can drive a car with your
international driving license, but you have to know all the rules before you venture onto
roads. Believe me, driving in US is lot different. ( Once my friend and I ended up on left
side of road , after turning, facing traffic, luckily , we escaped from head on
collision.....And that was on our 25th day in US.)It takes sometime to get used to driving
on right side of the road. Once you have Identity card, you can keep your passport in safe
place. Its also good to carry photo copy of passport with you. You can all the information
about identity card, licensing procedure for Washington state at http://www.wa.gov/dol/ . The procedure in other states
would also be similar. It would be good idea to download the driver license hand book and
read before you come to US. Its normal business practice that your manager does not
give you enough time to prepare, so you be prepared, its just matter of time before
you go abroad.
Social Security
Number:
This is a nine digit , unique number that will be assigned to you and that number
will be yours all your life. Its single most important identification number you
will have. It will be required in every single form you fill. E.g apartment rent
application, Bank Accounts, Health Insurance forms, credit card application, in office,
for investing , phone connection, electricity connection, when you get into legal problems
etc. Its also important that you keep that number secret. You have to go to Social
Security office , in your town. Take passport , visa papers with you. Not every one will
get SSN e.g your spouse on H4 may not get a SSN. But its always better to pay visit
to that office and confirm. You will get the SSN card in about 10 -15 days. And you will
get a receipt that you have applied for SSN. You can use that in Bank to open an
account. Also when you get a telephone connection, tell them you have applied for SSN, if
they ask for SSN. And when you get the SSN, call the bank, telephone company and let them
know your SSN. Also keep the SSN (it will be like a paper credit card) in a very safe,
secure place, along with your passport and visa papers. Visit http://cpsr.org/cpsr/privacy/ssn/ssn.faq.html
and http://www.ssa.gov/pubs/10002.html
for more info.
Telephone
connection:
For this you will need to know exact address of your apartment. Call the telephone
company from office or pay phones ( you can get phone number to telephone company from
yellow pages or white pages. You can find yellow pages, white pages in your office, or
apartment office or near any public pay phones). They will try to sell you lot of features
like call waiting, caller id, automatic call return etc. Just take call waiting option and
say no to all. You will also have to choose a Long Distance company. In India, our
STD calls are all handled by Telephone department. In US, you can choose AT&T, MCI,
Sprint etc to be your Long Distance Carrier. When you make a call to India, the company
you choose will connect that call and will charge you. And each of these companies have
different rates and plans. Ask your desi ( this is how Indians refer to other
Indians) friend, and go by his advice. They may also ask for deposit amount and you can
send by post. Don't send cash or traveler's check. Send a check. (you would have check
book, if you have opened a back account!!). They will give your telephone number. And you
should get connection within 24 hrs - 72 hrs. All you need is a telephone . Buy one and
plug in the telephone jack. Where to buy? Once you have got
the connection, call the long distance company, and ask them about rates , plans etc. They
will not tell you cheapest rates, so ask your friend about the plan ( In India, we have
calls after 11:00pm cheaper, here also there are several plans to choose from). Enroll
into that plan and then start making long distance calls, to India or you friend in other
corner of USA. If you don't choose a plan, your calls will be charged at regular
rates which are very high.( e.g. AT&T charges $1.12 / min + no monthly fee on your
India calls. If you choose a plan, called One Rate International, it will be $0.55 /min. +
$3 monthly fee. Do you see the difference ?) You can visit AT&T
or MCI World COM, GTE
, SPRINT, US WEST Bell South and familiarize with all the
nomenclature, rates, deals etc.
Few more things about telephones,
 | Making local calls: In US,
phone numbers are (NNN)-NNN-NNNN format. The first three digits constitute area code, this
is Indian equivalent of STD code. And the next seven digits constitute your phone number.
So when making a local call, you just dial last seven digits, without area code. These
wont cost you anything or cost $0.35 when using pay phones |
| Making Long Distance
calls: You have to dial 1 + (area code) + number as you can see 1 is Indian equivalent
of 0. In India you will call 0-(836)-304288. For these long distance charges apply.
Usually 10-15 cents per min. |
| Toll free numbers: These are
the numbers you can call and there will be no charge. These are usually the numbers of
companies, say for example an AT&T customer service , or Microsoft tech support. These
number start with 800 e.g (800)-CALL-ATT. You have to dial 1+(800)-number. Also
numbers that start with 888 and 877 are toll free. |
| How to find Toll Free
Number?One more interesting thing, if you want to find out toll free number for any
company, you can dial 1-(800)-555-1212 and ask for the number. Do commit this to your
memory. It can be very useful. One more difference, in India most of us will read
800-555-1212 as "eight double zero, triple five one two one two". In US
the number is read as, " eight hundred, five five five one two one two",
avoid using double,triple etc. |
| Collect calls: These are type of
calls where the call charged to the receiving party i.e you call your friend and your
friend will pay the charge. This is a very useful feature , when your are stranded and
don't have change/credit card and want to call someone. These calls are expensive. You can
dial 1+800-COLLECT ( the alphabets will be on the telephone key (number) pad), you will be
prompted to enter your friend's tel. number. After that an operator will ask your Name.
Your friend will hear your voice and name. He can accept the call or reject call. If he
accepts, call be completed and you can talk , your friend pays the cost( usually
$1.99+$0.25 per min), otherwise call will be disconnected. You can also dial
1-800-CALL-ATT , to do a collect call. |
| Calling
Cards/Credit card calls- You can pre-pay and buy "calling cards". e.g you
can pay $25 and get a calling card. There will be instructions on the card ( it will be
like a credit card) ,on how to use it. |
| Dial Around : Don't use these, if
you don't know how much it costs. These calls use (10-10-NNN)+1+(area code)+number .
By dialing 10-10-NNN you will be using a particular long distance company for that call.
e.g you have a telephone connection and you choose MCI World com as your long distance
company. Now for some reason you want to use AT&T for this one call, then you
can do so by dialing 10-10-288 +1+....... Got it? I have never used this feature as there
will be hidden costs. You may see lot of advertisements on TV which are very attractive.
But be careful. e.g 1010321 - advertises that all calls over 10 mins 50% off. They wont
tell you what is the charge, and you may not like your telephone bill. |
Bank Accounts:
You can open a bank account in any of the banks, you see in your city.You will need to
open two accounts , checking account ( In India, we call this current account ) and
savings account. Also ask for a Check card. Check card will be like a credit card, with
VISA( or MasterCard logo) and you can use it at all the places where visa/MasterCard are
accepted. Only thing is , money goes from your account at the time of use. In real credit
cards, you will get approximately one months time to pay. Getting a credit card is another
story. With "Check card" (aka Debit Card) you can do cash withdrawals,
transfers, bill payments etc from the ATMs ( automatic teller machines). ATMs are located
everywhere and you can use your check card at all ATMs ( only catch is, if you use your
bank's ATM, there is no charge, but if you use other banks' ATM, you will be charged appr
$4.00 per transaction). You will go to bank , only to close account ( even that can be
done by post). There is no real human interaction, machines do everything. One more
feature, I liked was I can do balance inquiries, transfers, bill payments over phone by
dialing a toll free number, sitting in home 24 hrs a day. You can also do online banking,
but that's not very attractive with slow internet connection. Some big names in
consumer/retail banking, Nations Bank, Sea First, First
Union, Chase, Bank of America
Where to buy?
In US, there are so many choices that one may get baffled and confused in what to
choose, how much to pay etc. But you can explore all those things after you get settled
down. For most urgent needs, visit one of the departmental stores like Kmart, Wal Mart or Target. These are there in most all cities and they have
everything you can imagine. You can buy all your electronic needs ( telephone,TV etc),
house hold things ( like utensils, knives, bedding, iron, iron board), clothes, toiletries
etc. A Wal Mart store will be probably as big
as half of Dharwad market and all under one roof. Visit their site and you will get an
idea of all the things they have. These stores are not expensive and they have decent
goods. If you want state of the art, expensive goods , there are other stores for those
things. But I would suggest, wait couple for months before spending money on expensive
goods. In US, Customer is king and you will be treated as one. You can return most
everything within 30 ( and some 90 ) days , for full refund, no questions asked. Ask about
"Return Policy" or read about it in their web sites. ( Audio Cassettes,
Software, Car , house, Computer, furniture cannot be returned!!!). Other than that you can
return everything. I returned tape recorder couple of times. Bought first one for $40,
then $50 and then finally settled for $150......And if a product is defective, you can
exchange.( My key board was defective and I got it replaced and its very very easy.)
Grocery Stores.
These are also big stores ( shops), where you can buy vegetables , oil, sugar, packaged
food etc. You will have to pick and choose whatever you want. ( you cannot say, give me 1
kilo tomato!!!). You will have to pick everything you want, put them in a shopping cart
and go to check out counters, where your items will be scanned and pay the money.
You can pay by check, credit card, travelers check. Did not I tell you , US is high tech?
For buying one simple vegetable, all these computers, scanning,credit cards, billion
dollar shopping chains!!!. There are few surprises in grocery store, so I wont tell them,
suspense.......Some of the names Albertsons, Safeway, Publix,
TOP, Fred Meyer,Win-Dixie.
Visit Home grocer and find out how
much a pound of tomato or milk costs, (enter 98133 as zip code). This will help you in
estimating how much money you can save/need etc.
Washing Clothes/Dishes:
You probably have used washing machine in India. They have become become very popular
among middle class, house wives. So incase, you don't know, in US all apartments have
washer and dryer. India, we get both washer/dryer in one unit. Here they are usually
separate.( these guys have too much space).You will need to buy detergent for the washer.
Read the instructions on the knob and use it accordingly. You will have to transfer the
clothes to dryer and usually it may take 45 min to dry the cloths. Soap to try - Tide
Ultra 2
Dish Washer: There is a big surprise in using this one. You can wash all
the utensils and they are pretty well cleaned. All utensils will come out shining. BUT,
most of us have tried putting some kind of hand wash dish-soap and started the dish
washer. In 10 min, whole kitchen will be flooded with water and foam!!!!.And we assumed
that dish washer was not working:-( ..... Dish washers need a special kind of soap. Read
the label on the soap, if it specifically says, it can be used in dish washer, use it.
Usually dish washer soap is powder. If you are trying to put liquid, then be ready with a
mop;-). You can try "Cascade Dishwasher soap" for first time.
Which Restaurants
Once you are in US, oh boy, you will miss Dosa, Idli, Baji,Girmitt, Pedha, puri Bhaji
and everything. You wont get all those tasty, mouth watering stuff but you can try
something knew. There is huge variety and you can explore them. If you eat that moves, you
are coming to right place. But if you are vegetarian, you have very few choices.But from
my friends, I have heard Europe, Japan etc much worse for vegetarians. You can look at the
menu and decide, incase you don't know what something means, ask them if it contains
meat?. Don't assume anything, names can be deceptive. Anyway, here are some of most common
places veggies can go.
| Where |
What to order |
Some things to note |
| Burger king |
Veggie Whopper , Fries, Onion Rings, Apple Pie |
Veggie Burger ==> burger(beef) with vegetables. Price <
$5 per meal |
| McDonalds |
Fries, Onion Rings, Pie |
They don't have any veggie stuff, but you can order Mc
"with No Meat". They will laugh, but you will get something eat.Price < $5
per meal |
| Taco Bell |
Mexican Pizza with NO meat, Taco with NO meat, Bean Burrito,
Seven layer burrito, Veggie warp, Veggie Gordita |
This is Mexican fast food, owned by Pepsi Foods. So don't ask
for Coke in Taco Bell;-). You may not like this the first time but you can try. Taco
looks like a thick folded papad with vegetables inside. Burrito is like chapati and Bean
Burrito , burrito rolled with "paste" of boiled rajma. Price < $5 per
meal |
| SubWay |
Six inch or Foot Long Veggie Delite or Garden Sandwitch |
This is cold sandwich. You can have with cheese, mustard,
vinegar and vegetables. You have choice of bread - Wheat or white. Choose one. Both are
OK. Wheat bread looks little darker than white bread. Price < $5 per meal |
| Pizza Hut |
Veggie lovers, Cheese Pizza,Bread Sticks,Garlic Bread,
Spagatti with Tomato sauce |
If you are alone, order "Personal Pan" Veggie
lovers. Two people can eat one medium pizza. If you order more, you can pack and
take it home. Everyone does that. Don't be shy about asking for a box to pack.
When you order Veggie Lovers - tell them to add "Jalapenos" pronounced as
"halapenos". This is kind of Mexican pepper/chili, which will add some spice to
otherwise bland taste.Don't try spagatti, its for one+ years veterans ;-). PizzaHut
is owned by Pepsi, so you wont get Coke. Price < $8 per meal |
| Wendys |
Garden Veggie Pita, Fries, Baked Potato |
You may see something like "Chili" on the menu,
don't order that, it is some kind of chicken dish, these people call it Chili. Price
< $5 per meal |
| Chinese |
Fried Rice with No egg, Veg Chow Mein, Veg Noodles, veg bean
curd. |
Chinese put egg in most dishes. You have to tell them
"with no egg". They have something called "Tofu" which is like our
paneer and you can try that. Ask them about Tofu dishes. Price < $10 per meal. |
| Italian |
Pasta, Spagatti, Pizza |
You can try these with your friend who has already visited
those once before. If you go in alone, you may in for surprise. |
These are mostly like our "Darshini"s, you pay and order and then pick
up your food. The first time I stepped into these, I did not know what the menu meant and
took lot of time in deciding, hope your first time expirience in these places will
be much better. There are many other types of restaurants, may be you can try them at
leisure. When you are hungry , go to a place where you know you can get something decent
to eat. |
