Mother bringing 10 K USD as gift for me from India - What form to bring- Cash,Cheque?

[free2talk]

My mother plans to give me 10K USD as gift from her own money.
Its her money in Rs in India and she wants to give me 10K USD here.
What is the best way to go about it ? Can she bring 10K USD cash ? USA immigration it needn't be declared as it would be slightly less than 10K.
How to bring it from India.It seems from India we can only bring 3K cash and the rest in TC etc.
Any suggestions from someone who has faces this situation earlier ?

Thanks in advance for replies.

[geterdone]

The best way to do this is to wire trasfer it. The banks will take care of it. You will end up paying a small amount of fee, but I think it is still worth it and perfectly legal and fast. I don't know if there is a limit on one time transfer, but if there is it can be broken down.

My mother plans to give me 10K USD as gift from her own money.
Its her money in Rs in India and she wants to give me 10K USD here.
What is the best way to go about it ? Can she bring 10K USD cash ? USA immigration it needn't be declared as it would be slightly less than 10K.
How to bring it from India.It seems from India we can only bring 3K cash and the rest in TC etc.
Any suggestions from someone who has faces this situation earlier ?

Thanks in advance for replies.

[free2talk]

Thanks wire transfer is an option.
Any other ideas please ?

[sssbpgmgc]

FYI, ICICI charges about 5% in fees. Western union is little better.

[qesehmk]

Freetotalk - I too have struggled with bringing money to US. So am really interested in this answer.

But I will throw a different and slightly wild idea.

If your mom carries Amex in India - she can spend dollars in US and pay rupees in India.

I have done the same but otherway round. I always spend on my Amex in India. Once I spent $4K in single transaction. My experience is that it doesn't really cost much. plus u get a very decent exchange rate. As a rule of thumb my experience is even the most efficient money transfers do cost you 0.5% in exchange rate anyway.

[free2talk]

Thanks Q and everyone for for your replies.Much Appreciated

[isantem]

If she has a bank account she can make international bank transfer. I have credit union account here. The cost was approx. 40$ from Europe to here. It takes 3-4 days for the funds to be available. I was woried about if I need to pay taxes but I was told by the bank that NO and they dont report transaction below 10k to federal authorities anyhow.

[bvsamrat]

Other way round is very easy to spend dollars or other currency in India by either AMEX or Visa or Master cards

Citi ATMs will allow withdraw up 1 lakh Rs (may be more- that is what did few years back and that time no transaction fees on my card and my card issuer allowed me add surplus funds on my credit card. Easier that way

But now a days, most of the US banks charge foreign transaction fees, upsetting the exchange rate advantage(with Credit cards some times it is the middle rate- to be checked )

My best bet is take AMEX TCs in India (frankly no other way) wire transfer is always may charge commission and extra charges both sides.

Not to my liking
There may be a limit on TCs on Indian PPs, but 10,000 $ would not be difficult.
even in cash if you can get it from Thomas Cook. There should not be any issue if under 10,000$
Why bring money here? with the exchange rate so bad?. IMHO- better to bring gold or gifts(I believe gold is somewhat low now)

Freetotalk - I too have struggled with bringing money to US. So am really interested in this answer.

But I will throw a different and slightly wild idea.

If your mom carries Amex in India - she can spend dollars in US and pay rupees in India.

I have done the same but otherway round. I always spend on my Amex in India. Once I spent $4K in single transaction. My experience is that it doesn't really cost much. plus u get a very decent exchange rate. As a rule of thumb my experience is even the most efficient money transfers do cost you 0.5% in exchange rate anyway.