PART I – Navigating Through The Great Unknown
Calm your horses. We know you have been waiting for the ‘real deal.’ We are no Ginie (or are we?), but we do bring you a first-hand account of an Indian immigrant who navigated through different stages of adjusting to America.
He is now well-settled, but he also had his fair share of struggles. From a small-town boy of a lower-middle-class family to owning his own house in America, this is the Journey of an immigrant from India to the USA.
Say Namaste to Bimal Mirchandani. A Sindhi from Bhopal who excels in systems engineering and is now well-settled in Atlanta, America. He graduated from Pune with a degree in Computer Science. And you wouldn’t be able to guess, after seeing him all immersed in American culture, that he once planned to go to good old Britain.
But before you move to a country you need to be sure that the country aligns either with your education or work profile. Since Bimal was a working professional and dealt with computer science, he knew the US would serve his aspirations better than the UK.
The Beginning
Everyone has their “where it all started moment.” Bimal had his, too. He believes his interest in Computer science started at an early age. In sixth standard itself, compared to other subjects, he excelled at computers.
He was building PCs at a time when a lot of kids had no idea about how to even start one. But the thought of going abroad started right after high school. He mentions that his middle-class upbringing always motivated him to do something big, something more in life.
He was introduced to the idea of moving to another country after he left his town for the first time for his undergrad. He graduated from Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research.
He says that his expertise in computer science made him realize that his career should also be in the same field. But he was afraid that he would just be another clerk. He wanted to stay away from that world. And that is when his thoughts started to shift towards moving out of India.
During the first two years of his graduation, Bimal’s friends and classmates talked about education in the UK. As Bimal puts it, Britain and other European countries are more evolved in the marketing and management sector. However, with the change in the UK’s visa policies and better opportunities for him in America, considering his field, he shifted his focus to moving to America.
Now, he might have been sure about the country, but how did Atlanta come into the picture? As Bimal puts it, “ Atlanta wasn’t on my mind. It was never the city”. The university he wanted, and more logically, the one he could afford, was his goal.
And as it happened, Georgia State University was the one for him.
Although he had acceptance letters from two other universities- North Carolina and Florida, he went with GSU because it was affordable and because it was on the list of the top 10 universities at the time for the course that he opted for.
So, his chosen course in one of the top 10 universities, with tuition fees he could afford, was his calling then.
He further points out that his choice of college was also affected by his desire to get a job after graduating. Of course, education was important, too.
However, he believes one doesn’t always make a career in the same field one studies. He gives his own example, stating that he studied data science with a bit of cybersecurity, and now he is a full-time cybersecurity engineer.
Bimal talks about how he could not choose an Ivy League college and how he had his doubts about the requirements for GMAT, GRE, and IELTS. If you, as a reader, are also confused about them, follow the steps he mentioned.
Select the course you wish to pursue, gather information about the country that offers it the best, apply to universities that come in your income bracket, and choose the best one from all the universities that invite you.
If you are a student who just graduated from high school or college and are looking to study abroad, the process will be just as described. But if you are already employed, working at a company as big as Infosys, oh boy, do things change!! Bimal says the expertise he had wasn’t a big requirement back in the day in India.
He talks about how all great companies, like Infosys and TCS, look for clerical employees. They hire experts from outside; they don’t hire experts from within the country.
He furthers his argument about working outside India by saying he feels that regardless of how experienced you are and what kind of benefits you can bring to the company, it’s always going to be a limited exercise for them to progress you forward.
The concept of seniority or who has been in the company for how long matters a lot more in India. Whereas, in the US, the thought process is a bit different. Companies care more about your metrics and your performance than your age.
Of course, he eventually had to shift to a place that would not only require but respect expertise. Even though he thought of moving to the States in high school, he still worked at Infosys for four years. And he says, “ …everybody has to pay their dues.”
He also mentioned that “it was a great learning curve” for him. But he states that he eventually reached a breaking point where he felt stuck and knew that he couldn’t progress forward, and that’s when he left.
Comparisons and Inspirations
Remember your overachieving cousin who scored 100 even in their ‘Arts’ subject? We have all been through comparisons being drawn with someone our age, our neighbor’s kids, or our classmates. Bimal’s mother was no different. And Indian parents can be persuasive if they want to be – don’t you remember Amitabh Bachchan from Mohabbatein?
His choice of going for BCA – Bachelor’s in Computer Application – was questioned. He says that because his parents had their social circles and the kids in those social circles were doing all things good- like IIT, IEEE, or medicine- his choice not to opt for an engineering field was discarded.
Bimal mentions how his “mom, in particular,” asked questions like,” Why not engineering?” and why he didn’t want to “stay within the city.?” Bimal feels “some questions were) out of love, some out of comparison with other kids.” He mentions that everyone in his family did engineering. So he wasn’t an outlier in that matter. But he did face some fallback. However, his father was supportive.
Bimal says his father motivated him enough for him to be confident in his choice. He tells how his father had no knowledge about his field, but he trusted Bimal and pushed him to move forward.
He says that even when he was still a kid and kind of immature, his father put his faith in him. He is glad that his father kept this trust even when he was choosing a field as different as computer science at that time.
He continues to credit Shantanu Balchandani, his cousin, for being another inspiration. He remembers that he started his journey of having a career in computer science because of Shantanu. If not for Shantanu, Bimal would have never taken the step in the required direction.
He weaves how he might not understand French, but computer languages, which are just dancing letters for the majority, made sense to him. And he wouldn’t have started had Shantanu never got a computer.
He remembers that since Shantanu is five years older than him, he had to copy whatever Shantanu did. So when Shantanu got his first PC, he also wanted one for himself. And that rolled the road to success for him.
Bimal says Ratan Tata is his inspiration. He believes, “We are basically an accumulation of everything that inspires.” He says each person who inspires you throughout your life makes pieces of your true self today.
He talks about how Ratan Tata’s discipline, work culture, ethics, and morals inspire him to the core. He finds Ratan Tata’s life dedicated to the betterment of humanity truly fascinating. Bimal goes on to say that he could give anything to have an intellectual conversation with the man.
As he mentions, Ratan Tata has the opportunity to be the richest person, but he refuses to do so. Instead, he continues to give back to society.
He says he knows how Ratan Tata always had the opportunity to be the CEO of the company he owns, but he doesn’t care, and, according to Bimal, that is very hard to come by. We would have thought it was a cliche if we didn’t love Ratan Tata ourselves. That man has no haters.
Hopes and Preparations
Bimal tells us that he got his admit letter on October 6, 2016, and his course started on January 9, 2017, so he had only three months before his course started in America.
This is also precisely the time one has to inform the Indian authorities about your immigration. You need to give a three-month notice in India in comparison to America’s two-week courtesy notice. So unlike you, who had taken three years to move on from your ex, Bimal only had three months to prepare for his move from India to the USA.
He credits his father for his financial help. His father worked in a bank for a long time. Bimal needed to take out a loan, and his father assisted him with it. It took Bimal two months to secure a loan and make other arrangements.
He took out a loan against his parent’s house as collateral. Remembering how crazy the entire process was, he hopes it has become much easier now.
When you decide to take a loan, you need to familiarise yourself with the entire process of loan-taking. No matter which bank you choose, taking a loan can always be, in Bimal’s words, “an expensive and a very bloody process, to say the least.”
Remember Zendaya’s character in Spider-Man saying, “ If you expect disappointment, then you can never really be disappointed”? You can take that for yourself as well. Bimal says because of his upbringing in India, he always thought about how his life would be in America after ten years or what he needed to achieve.
Even he had ambitions like “I’m going to be in Silicon Valley and Fortune 500 companies”. However, he says he only understood what he actually wanted after six months in college.
He wasn’t able to plan for the next five years when he was travelling to the USA from India because he had no idea how things were going to be in America.
Bimal says it is better to choose the path that you believe you are good at rather than going for the path that seems easy. He says once you land in America, you might know only your first step. So you can decide on the rest when you are there while simultaneously figuring out college and life.
He studied cyber security and was always interested in the cyber world, looking at the news, phishing problems, and everything that goes on in the cyber world. It intrigued him to the point that he now has a full-time job in the same sector. So, be open to trying new things and giving chances to subjects in which you have even the slightest interest.
If you are wondering whether everybody has it figured out or not, then take a pin and burst that bubble because everyone is actually just winging it. It is okay to be unsure about what is going to happen when you land in America; it is only natural.
As this Indian immigrant tells us, he also took his time and got an idea only after six months there. He says that he was making short-term goals, and it is not a bad idea; short-term goals could eventually help you achieve the long-term goal. He talks about pursuing the right path instead of the easy path, which for him was the cyber world.
Nerves and Nerve-Wrecking
Sh*ting bricks? It’s normal. You are allowed to feel a thousand emotions at one time. One minute, you are nervous; the second, you are emotional; and the third, you are in denial.
Bimal talks about what he felt when he was moving from India to the USA. He says if someone tells you they are excited about the move, they are lying because leaving the comfort of your home and country is in no way exciting.
Bimal shares that he had only $3000 when he landed in America. He says the easy way to use your limited funds is to make a pros and cons list to determine what you need to prepare for in terms of cost.
He says you don’t have a lot of money when you travel from India to the USA. You are always looking for the cheapest flight tickets, saving every 100 bucks you can, finding an apartment, making mistakes, and learning from them along the way.
He says, “A lot of anxiety and a lot of thought goes into that.” He has “always been a person who overthinks.” He tries to put all the pros and cons on a sheet and tries to figure it out, and he did the same “to prepare for in terms of costs”. So your anxiety is valid; even your overthinking is okay; we don’t promote it in any sense, though.
Bimal always likes to be prepared, but America was a game he had never played. Forget about winning; he didn’t even know the rules. So it is okay if you feel the same. He mentions that because he had such little time to prepare, even if things worked out, a horrendous thought process went on.
So, if you think you are underprepared now, trust us when we say you can never be fully prepared or over-prepared for the monster of uncertainty that America is. It is, thus, okay to be overwhelmed.
Try to prepare to the highest level that you can, and then leave the rest to the universe as you can figure it out once you land in a new nation.
Accommodating and Accommodation
You need to sleep, eat, and maybe party. How do you find accommodation and roommates? This is one of the questions you might be asking. Well, we are here with answers.
Once you get your admit letter, you can get into Whatsapp groups and social groups with the people who also have admit letters and are looking for the same thing as you – accommodation. Bimal says it’s a gamble on who you could find as your roommate. You can choose from your peers and colleagues at that time.
This is because you are on a budget. Bimal says he only had $3000 when he first moved to the US, so he looked for peers who were also on a budget and decided to stay together.
If Ambani is your adoptive father, then sure, you will have tons of options to choose from, but when you have taken a loan, you need to be conscious about every buck spent.
Bimal remembers he was grouped with three other guys who had their admit letters but no accommodation. He says he didn’t choose them himself; rather, they were put together.
The search starts online, of course. There are many options, but your budget plays the main role. Bimal says they kept their budget restricted to $400 per month for each person for accommodation.
It is easy to find an apartment in America.
He mentions you can hop from one broker to another because only they know the listings. There are also apartments especially up for rent, and they can be found online. You can search for a rental place using the city’s zip code; for example, for Atlanta’s Lindbergh community, it is 30324. You might want to stay closer to your campus or working space.
After you enter the arena, it is actually easy to get a living place. You just need to choose from the options. Just pick the area and search and choose. After figuring out how much you want to spend and who you’re going to live with, the apartment searching process is not that big of a hassle. It can be a bit hectic if you have a lot of unknowns. Bimal’s advice for the people who are migrating is, “Don’t think too much about that.”
According to Bimal, finding your home away from home will take just a week of research. All the process of finalizing the apartment happens when you get to America. And then, in Bimal’s words, “They give you the lease documents, the ID proofs, immigration documents, and everything. All that processing happens on the first”.
Now, the question of how you pay for the apartment might ring in your brain. This is an obvious question and might confuse you, but the answer is as simple as it can get. You don’t own a debit or credit card but rather just cash when you land.
No payments in the US are made in cash. So Bimal solves the doubt and reveals that you could go with a money draft. You can easily access financial services like Kroger’s, Publix, etc. You can exchange your cash for a money draft and easily pay for the apartment.
He also mentions that your banking accounts could be sorted within a month, and you are good to go for the payments thereafter. So, a money draft is an easy and solid solution to your queries about how to pay when you land.
Conclusion
So, how’s the move to the US coming? Feeling the pressure yet? Or are you still in your “I can win over the world era?” You can be in that era; just remember, you might want to win little battles before even participating in a war.
The battles are – finding roommates, applying for a loan, and choosing the right university or city to reside in. Once you have fought them and won, settling in the States and adapting to the American culture would be the war you would automatically win.
You have arrived in America, you took all the steps in the right direction, and now you are actually there, in the flesh. Do you have any idea what life is like in America? What? Don’t look at us like that! We, too, have no clue.
But guess what? Our Indian immigrant in America does, so we are taking advantage of this and asking him all the necessary questions about life in America.
If you are ready for the next step of your US journey, read the next part of Bimal’s interview, “Survival in the Great Unknown.” Once you are done with that, you can always put Bimal’s advice into practice. And if there are things you don’t understand yet, fear not because our blogs are always there to help. Till then, happy reading!
