Planning for 2027 (From India and exploring feasibility of retiring to the US)

[The_Outsider]

Hi, I came across this forum a few weeks ago and immediately got glued to it. The quantity and quality of material available here on FIRE is simply amazing.


We are a family of 4 (I, DW and two <10 kids) living in tier-1 city in India. Current NW is $500k most of which is in taxable market linked funds. A small portion is in FD (CDs as it is called in the US) fetching 7% interest. Plus have house equity worth $300k and mortgage of $200k.


Our annual saving is approximately $140k which we mostly park in market linked funds. 20% goes to the FDs which has locking period of 5 years.


One of the reason I am on this forum is because DW wanted to explore the possibility of retiring to the US. She has lived there for a few years for education and loved her time there. I have been to the US multiple times albeit never lived there more than 4-6 weeks. I am not too keen about this plan however want to collect all the information to discuss with DW and then take a call.


With our current saving rate we expect to have NW of $2.5M + $700k house by 2027-28. Of course this will depend on work and economy. As of now it looks okay for few more years.


I will be asking questions related to HC costs and taxes in the US in coming weeks/months after I am done reading about it in various threads on this forum.


If you folks have any questions regarding India, feel free to ask.


BTW, thanks to the administrators for letting me in.

 

[cathy63]

Welcome!

What's your visa situation for gaining permanent residency in the U.S? My understanding is that it's quite difficult to move here as a retiree unless you have family members who are living here with U.S. citizenship to sponsor you. Most people who do this come here on a work visa and get their employer to sponsor them for permanent residency. You might want to figure this out before you worry too much about healthcare and housing.

 

[The_Outsider]

Welcome!

What's your visa situation for gaining permanent residency in the U.S? My understanding is that it's quite difficult to move here as a retiree unless you have family members who are living here with U.S. citizenship to sponsor you.

There is an option of investment based visa which has very little wait time as of now and requires $500k worth of investment in the US. I am collecting information on that too. Can’t say what will be the situation in 2027 but if the wait time remains same then that would be the preferred way of course.

However the catch is that the investment is locked for some years.

 

[kavm]

Seems a bit far fetched to me. But first - https://www.forbes.com/sites/andyjsemotiuk/2019/07/24/new-rule-raises-us-immigrant-investor-requirement-to--900000/#514b26734574 suggests that the investor visa is $900K.

Second, with investor visa depleting some of the available funds - I am not entirely sure that you have enough savings for a comfortable retirement for two people (I am not thinking about the children part of this). First, the health care costs can be substantial. Do not have ready data as most US retirees have Medicare coverage past 65. As a non-Medicare retiree, you will have to bear the insurance costs for yourself and your wife. No idea of the magnitude but expect a substantial sum. Seems like you would end up having a poor person’s retirement at best here, and not entirely sure of the gain.

 

[The_Outsider]

Thank you for sharing the article. That settles it more or less. I see no point in shelling out $900k for a GL. $500k was manageable as I would have worked a couple of years more to increase the NW to accommodate this cash outflow. However, now it’s out of reach kind of.

If I get an employment based GL then will consider however that means pushing ER to 2030 which isn’t desirable. I am 36, BTW.

 

[cathy63]

Yes, the EB-5 minimum is now $900K. Here's the official U.S. Government page about the program. https://www.uscis.gov/eb-5