Restrictions on cash after soft landing?

[frightenedpanda]

I did my soft landing in October and now I am going back to Canada from India.

I wanted to take around $10,000 with me so that I can pay my initial rent + living cost but the money changer here in Punjab told me that they cannot give me CAD in cash if I am not going for landing purposes.

He said the only way to transfer money is thru bank transfer.

Is there a problem taking cash in hand? Do people go from India regularly get searched for Forex? Has anyone faced any issue with taking a large sum of money?

Also, will there be a problem if I transfer money through the bank? Someone told me that the Canadian bank might need me to prove where and how I earned all the money before the release it into my account.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Fahadkazmi]

I did my soft landing in October and now I am going back to Canada from India.

I wanted to take around $10,000 with me so that I can pay my initial rent + living cost but the money changer here in Punjab told me that they cannot give me CAD in cash if I am not going for landing purposes.

He said the only way to transfer money is thru bank transfer.

Is there a problem taking cash in hand? Do people go from India regularly get searched for Forex? Has anyone faced any issue with taking a large sum of money?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

There is no problem with Canada, all you will have to do is declare at the customs of Canada if you are carrying more than CAD 10k.
However, I am not from India so dont know if you are allowed to take CAD 10k cash out from India, for this you will have to inquire with the relevant authorities in India.

 

[Bs65]

As above there is no limit on how much cash you can take into or out of Canada whether as a visitor or a PR or a citizen as long as any cash 10k CDN or over (any combination of currency in hand)is declared to CBSA at the border. As for the statement about only applicable for people landing as a PR then maybe this is some rule specific to taking cash out of INDIA, certainly not a Canadian rule.

Obviously though carrying 10K or more in cash carries an amount of personal travel risk as opposed to a bank transfer.

Cannot comment on banks holding funds as assume this would be down to an individual bank but doubt just 10k would have any issues through a transfer as opposed a a few hundred thousand but thats a personal view.

Banks after all should not be surprised that new immigrants are going to transfer money from their home country over a period of time but these days banks WW have a fixation on money laundering sometimes for some ridiculous reasons or amounts.

 

[ashwani.m]

There is no limit to carry foreign exchange to Overseas, provided you obtained them from authorized money exchange and carry receipt of that transaction.


However, amounts more than USD 5,000 or equivalent and foreign exchanges in the form or bank notes or traveler's cheques exceeding USD 10,000 or its equivalent must be declared to the customs while going abroad from India.

 

[ashwani.m]

so carry traveller's cheque, bank draft or transfer money in canadian bank account from india (costliest way to carry money)