Things to do - My Checklist

250 days before
1) Go through final dilemma (if any)
2) Choose a range of date. March 18 (+ or - 20 days). Decide the date evaluating your finance (401K, Bonus, Appraisal etc)
3) Chances are that after you choose the date, you will start seeing yourself in India after that date (which should be the case :D). Basically, after this you cannot plan anything which runs over your R2I date (ex: Courses, Big Vacations by borrowing holidays)


200 days before:
Write your own things to do checklist :D
1) Definitely have made up mind on R2I. (As someone said - Make a decision. Indecessiveness doesn't help)
2) Give a thought on your finance. Have a summary on your bank accounts, credit cards, 401k plan, brokerage accounts, loans.
3) Have an NRE account, so that you can transfer (After the move, you have to change it to NRO (which is taxable on income) - Find out more)
4) Have your resume ready and decide what position and job you want to land. Outsourcing companies are of two types - Service oriented (Wipro, Infosys..) and Product development (Google, Microsoft). Give a thought about both.
5) Definitely have a thought on where you want to find the job and live (Hyderabad or Bangalore??)

75 days before: Jan 1st 2008
1) Work on bank accounts. Need to apply for an account in CITI/ABN-AMRO or any other bank which has branch in India. List Here
2) Plan on any vacation and trips with friends

60 days before: Jan 15th 2008
1) Book the ticket

45 days before Feb 1st 2008
1) Tell your boss. You need this for referral also
2) Finalize the job in India or atleast in negotiation state.

Check List for R2I (living document)

If you are NRA - Non Resident Alien (no GC, No USC), then you must fill out form W8-BEN and provide that to the bank and brokerages and have accounts changed over to NRA status around the time you R2I.
from R2IClub

Good List at R2I page

More suggestions

Naveen Bodlav suggested on filing the Canadian Green card before leaving to India, as it will help me if I want to work in other country than India.
Have to think of pro's and con's like how long it takes to get it and Level of effort on time/ money / complexity.

My brother also suggested of why not change the field from .Net to SAP or others which are more lucrative. Have to give this a thought as it's a good time to change, but not sure how much added complexity is it with R2I.

CTC - Cost to Company

Most useful thing to know while negotiating salary is to know how the Indian companies give the salary package. It has many loop holes and without this knowledge, its easy to get trapped. More info on CTC at Chennai Living Blog

Related article from Rediff

More info: -
All Fringe benefits are taxable.

2008-2009 tax proposal will make you get more take-home money. Details - link