Heartiest Congratulations Victory123!! Have a beautiful life in Canada
Below are some tips/suggestions from myself and my wife,
I'm not sure if u have been to USA/Canada before, with my experience I would like to pass on a few shopping tips/suggestions
. Per my experience its waste of our hard earned money to shop in India. I'm currently in USA and have lived in Canada for 2 years sometime back. Before travelling to Canada, I had like everyone else shopped a galore from brands like westside, max, lifestyle etc. but most of the clothes shrunk after washing/drying in machines in US/Canada.
We majorly shop for is clothes, shoes, women shop for cosmetics n purses. I strongly recommend to everyone who travel to US/Canada on long term, to not shop a lot in India. Indian clothes (even branded ones) have a higher % of cotton blend which when washed and dried in washers and dryers in US/Canada shrink/lose shape. They really look ugly when worn and eventually we put them aside and buy new ones there. You could buy synthetic clothing which may be useful and live longer. Also, you could buy traditional clothing which usually being expensive (having embroidery etc) is hand washed and hang-dried so they escape the washer and drier treatment. In woolens, buy just sweaters/shawls/throws in India. Light/heavy jackets, woolen caps, mufflers, hand gloves etc, you should shop in US/Canada as the ones available here, are manufactured based on the requirements to stand these harsh winters. Even thick jackets bought in India would not stand the winters of US/Canada. Same is applicable to shoes, open shoes can be used only for a 2-3 months in a year (buy minimum pairs), rest of the year you would use closed shoes as its pretty windy and cold. Come winters and you would need snow shoes which can be got in US/Canada. Indian expensive winter shoes are just not sufficient in these harsh winters.
India being not all that cheap anymore(any good quality branded clothing is not less than Rs. 1200-1400, shoes 3-4k minimum) its best to buy your requirements in US/Canada. Another aspect is, even after paying so much in India you would not get export quality goods in local/branded stores in India. Whereas at the same price you get superior export quality stuff in US/Canada though they are made in India/Vietnam/Bangladesh/Pakistan/China but of export quality. You will see the difference in the quality for yourself when you buy in US/Canada. You can get excellent quality sweatshirts/sweatpants/sweaters/scarfs/caps/socks/hand gloves/throws/shirts/casual pants/womens tops/jeans/trousers etc. etc. for 10-25$, there would be many buy one get one offers for winter wear, jackets are not all that expensive too. In India u would pay nearly 5-8k for a woolen coat/jacket, here you would get them at a lesser/same price but more variety, better quality and definitely suitable for these cold temperatures. We shop in India spending minimum 70-100k anticipating to save money on these items when we land in US/Canada, but my personal experience is all that money goes waste due to the factors I mentioned above. Women get good purses for 20-50$ which is as good as Rs. 1200-3000 and again they are as per the USA/Canadian trend/fashion, same goes with their shoes and cosmetics. Brands like Aeropostale/Old Navy/JCPenny etc have good stuff at reasonable rates in US/Canada.
You could invest in some important kitchen items, eg. a branded good pressure cooker costs anything between $80-280 in US/Canada. And again, minimum you would get is 5-8 ltrs. Smaller ones like 1/2/3 ltr cookers which we get in India are not easily available here. Non-stick cookware set of 5 utensils+lids cost anything between $100-250. Mixer-Grinder which works on 100v (eg., BOSS mixer-grinder costs Rs. 2500/- & works on 100v), in US/Canada you get only juicers. You do not get grinders which can grind Indian masalas, lentils, grains etc. You could find some grinders on Amazon but they cost no less than $120. Also, usually they have just 1 big jar which is not suitable for small quantity grinding. You could think of getting such items from India if you like. Talk to your family/relatives/friends in US/Canada and have their advise on your shopping.
One of my friend who immigrated to Australia used India Post to move his stuff to Australia. India Post has some cargo which costs Rs. 7000 for a 20kg box. You need to pack your stuff and drop it at the post and the foreign country's local post would deliver it to your doorstep in respective foreign lands. In this friend's case, he received everything intact in 2 weeks time at his doorstep in Sydney, Australia. You could enquire/explore this option whenever you want to move more stuff as your airfare would permit max of 46kg per passenger and you would experience that its not enough when you are moving permanently
.
Above is my experience and perspective, others may have a different views/perspectives to this major and important transition. I saw that you are going to go on a shopping spree
, so these are some two cents from my side
. Happy Shopping!!
