How to send money from Bangladesh to the USA?

[Zeeshan]

How to send large amount of money (100,000 + ) from Bangladesh to USA? I talked to lot of people and get conflicting answers. I hear it is extremely difficult to send money from Bangladesh because of restrictions even in wire transfer? A friend of mine said that if you can open an account in Sonali Bank of "wire charge" account or something you can send money electronically. Bank only cares for "proof of source of income". USA doesn't care as long as you invest money here.

On the other hand many of my family members say that it is impossible to send such large amount of money from Bangladesh. There is something called "houndi" but that's illegal

So what is the legal way to send large amount of money from Bangladesh to USA?

Thank you so much for the serious answers.

[Blah]

There is no non-business, legal way to send foreign currency from bd to anywhere.

[dash]

you need particular bangladesh bank permission...need justifiable cause permitted within the book... like medical issues, studies,,etc..

[Zeeshan]

Originally Posted by Blah
There is no non-business, legal way to send foreign currency from bd to anywhere.

Originally Posted by dash
you need particular bangladesh bank permission...need justifiable cause permitted within the book... like medical issues, studies,,etc..

Well that'd be for buying a house/condo etc. So as long as we show proof of source of income, there will be restriction from BD?

And thanks guys.

[dash]

Originally Posted by Zeeshan
Well that'd be for buying a house/condo etc. So as long as we show proof of source of income, there will be restriction from BD?

And thanks guys.

Taka is not a freely convertible currency...in your case this is a foreign investment ... You will deffo need a Bangladesh bank permission to send it through legal channels

[Ajfar]

You can try Shonali Exchange. I sent money from US to BD through Sonali Exchange for my dad, they charged me $20ish for every $5000. I would assume you can do the same from BD to US.

The other "Legal" way to do this is if you know someone in US who always sends money to BD. Just get the people living in US to give you the money here, and have people in BD give the money to the other people. You can save a lot on taxes and fees this way.

[MohammedC]

^^^ You assume wrong Ajfar.

When I opened a bank account in Bangladesh few years back. Jut by curiosity I asked the manager the procedure of transferring money from BD to UK. He answer was simple its too complicated.

[Dilscoop]

You convert it and put the 2 pennies in an envelop and mail that ish over here.

[HereWeGo]

if you were the prime-minster or his son, u can always put the money in 100+ suitcases and send it or travel with it anywhere in the world...

otherwise the only way to send it is through hundi.....

[layperson]

If you have someone in bd who has a foreign currency account/ us dollar account, he/she can send it to you. Usually importers/exporters would have a us dollar account or if you are an expatriate you can open a us dollar account.

Other than that the process ajfar said works best. Person A in US pays you 100k and you pay his contact in bd the equivalent of it in bdt. You save on fees. However this is also a form of hundi.

[iDumb]

Originally Posted by layperson
If you have someone in bd who has a foreign currency account/ us dollar account, he/she can send it to you. Usually importers/exporters would have a us dollar account or if you are an expatriate you can open a us dollar account.

i think this should work. open fc account. put money there. transfer here. simple. if there is a will there is a way.

and agree with ialbd too. gonna cost you to get all that money converted.

taka is a worthless pos.

[Zeeshan]

Okay thanks all.

I am actually a ditz when it comes to accounting and finance. Let me bullet the questions:

1. Is there restriction to send money from BD to USA? If yes, what is it and what is the limit of sum I can bring providing source of income?
2. Electronically wire transfer is possible or not?

I do not want to do -houndi- because and at any rate a passenger can bring no more than 10,000 dollar.

Any help would be appreciated. And if it helps the money is for buying house.

[crikss]

its complicated..you have to go through so much rules n regulation..not easy and since you are talking about big amount it will be more difficult

[ialbd]

Zeeshan bro, there are all kinds of restrictions sending money from BD to anywhere outside BD. As ppl said already unless its a business, medical or study related Bangladesh bank wont allow it. Unfortunately reasons like 'buying a house in a foreign land' will not be entertained.

@Shahriyar bhai, on the US dollar account in BD, you still have to buy $100K from the open market (will cost you sth like 88-90 lac BDT) cause no bank will sell you that much dollar without knowing where the money is going (business/medical/study). And that someone paying you 100K in US and you pay their contact Bangla taka in BD is a form of hoondi, but Hoondi's usually do it the otherway where you pay dollar to their contacts here and they pay you taka in BD. I think it'll be hard to find someone willing to do the first one.

Anyways, dont know what to say Zee, most of the people I know who got money out of BD fo house/business here, usually had an account outside BD and saved money there over time, carrying $5K/10K on every trip out (as funny as it may sound). Let me (us) know if you manage to find a legal way of doing this ...

[jay_00]

Originally Posted by Zeeshan
... at any rate a passenger can bring no more than 10,000 dollar.

Originally Posted by ialbd
...carrying $5K/10K on every trip out (as funny as it may sound). ...

Sorry for bumping old topic, it looks like information related this is very hard to find.

I need to know how much money a US permanent resident can carry out at a time. I see many of you said $10k limit but i can't find any official reference supporting that amount.
only thing i find is this...(look at section 6)

... the entire amount brought in with declaration, or up to US$ 3,000 brought in without declaration may be freely taken out at the at the time of departure...

so it looks like unless you brought the money in with you at the time entering Bangladesh, you can only take $3k.

not $10k not even $5k!

please let me know if anyone has any other reference.

by the way, its been a while this topic was opened... anybody found any other dependable way of sending money? legal or illegal? you see for me the problem with hundi is not the legality, but to trust someone with money without proper documentation.... which i'm not willing to do.

[Zeeshan]

Thanks ialbd, I think I have a better picture now. And yes, dash not taka, rather dollar.

So the consensus seems to right that it's difficult to send the money. Guess the gent who adamantly said the opposite was thinking of dalal and illegal ways.

Thnank you again everyone.

[layperson]

i know of people who have transferred over 1.5 milllion dollars each by paying someone in bd with equivalent bdt and the contact here in canada transferring the 1.5 million dollars to their canadian bank account. They dont do this in one transaction but do them in multiple transactions. Maybe a few hundred thousand at a time.

[iDumb]

Zeeshan is moving on up. Never thought in my life, he would ever utter a number with more than two zeroes when it comes to money.

btw where you buying your house? Key is to pay the least down payment, borrow to the most with this low interest rate, that way your main risk is credit rating not your savings.

it's an excellent time to buy a house..... but with the least downpayment possible.

[shuziburo]

Originally Posted by layperson
i know of people who have transferred over 1.5 milllion dollars each by paying someone in bd with equivalent bdt and the contact here in canada transferring the 1.5 million dollars to their canadian bank account. They dont do this in one transaction but do them in multiple transactions. Maybe a few hundred thousand at a time.

During these days, you could run into problems with the federal government for doing this as well. You might be required to show proof of the source of money again. Talking to an accountant here might be a good idea before the actual transfer.

[Kabir]

Originally Posted by layperson
i know of people who have transferred over 1.5 milllion dollars each by paying someone in bd with equivalent bdt and the contact here in canada transferring the 1.5 million dollars to their canadian bank account. They dont do this in one transaction but do them in multiple transactions. Maybe a few hundred thousand at a time.

That's called money laundering, and to the best of my knowledge that's illegal.

Unless, Z wants to know about illegal methods as well.

[Tigers_eye]

Originally Posted by layperson
i know of people who have transferred over 1.5 milllion dollars each by paying someone in bd with equivalent bdt and the contact here in canada transferring the 1.5 million dollars to their canadian bank account. They dont do this in one transaction but do them in multiple transactions. Maybe a few hundred thousand at a time.

A lesson to you and a lesson to everyone living in US:

Any amount of over $10k per month, wire transfer trigger's a FBI alert (from one personal account to another personal). Businesses are different.

Zee, must plan ahead and break it up in pieces over months.

[layperson]

Originally Posted by shuziburo
During these days, you could run into problems with the federal government for doing this as well. You might be required to show proof of the source of money again. Talking to an accountant here might be a good idea before the actual transfer.

Originally Posted by Kabir
That's called money laundering, and to the best of my knowledge that's illegal.

Unless, Z wants to know about illegal methods as well.

Originally Posted by Tigers_eye
A lesson to you and a lesson to everyone living in US:

Any amount of over $10k per month, wire transfer trigger's a FBI alert (from one personal account to another personal). Businesses are different.

Zee, must plan ahead and break it up in pieces over months.

@ Kabir: That is not money laundering. Please look up the definition. For reference here is the definition based on the federal government watchdog: http://www.fintrac.gc.ca/fintrac-can...argent-eng.asp Nije dui number boile shobaike dui number mone kora to thik nah.

@shuziburo and Tiger eye: I work in a bank so I am well are of these. Any transactions over $10k are reported but not all transactions are investigated. They are investigated if it is suspicious.

Problem is shobai assume kore nichche je taka gula illegal means e kamano hoise. but that is not the case. The money is legal, the source can be verified as a legal means. The only reason those individuals sent money that way was because of the stringent bangladesh bank laws governing foreign currency. Also zeeshan's opening post said that it is all legal money he wants to transfer so there is no problem in sending it with the method I mentioned. If investigated he will show the legal source of the funds.

[Kabir]

Originally Posted by layperson
@ Kabir: That is not money laundering. Please look up the definition. For reference here is the definition based on the federal government watchdog: http://www.fintrac.gc.ca/fintrac-can...argent-eng.asp Nije dui number boile shobaike dui number mone kora to thik nah.

Personal attack korar dorkar chilo na. Since tumi amake dui number dakteso, eitar evidence dekhaileo better hoito. But I digress...

Thanks for "educating" me on the definition of money laundering. Coz you've simply proved me right. Here's a clearer description.

Money laundering is the process of concealing the source of money obtained by illicit means.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_laundering

Basically, it's anything you do to conceal an illegal transaction/trade. The method you mentioned in your earlier post is at best "illegal" because it bypasses the "legal" process of sending the money outside of Bangladesh. If you can show me evidence that the Bangladeshi government considers this as a "legal" way of transferring money, please share.

[layperson]

Originally Posted by Kabir
Personal attack korar dorkar chilo na. Since tumi amake dui number dakteso, eitar evidence dekhaileo better hoito. But I digress...

Thanks for "educating" me on the definition of money laundering. Coz you've simply proved me right. Here's a clearer description.


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_laundering

Basically, it's anything you do to conceal an illegal transaction/trade. The method you mentioned in your earlier post is at best "illegal" because it bypasses the "legal" process of sending the money outside of Bangladesh. If you can show me evidence that the Bangladeshi government considers this as a "legal" way of transferring money, please share.

Once again you are forgetting that money laundering has to do more with illegally earned money.

Let me dumb it down further what I advised zeeshan: Person A pays person B money in Bangladesh. This transaction cannot be deemed illegal unless the sources of the money is illegal. I hope you agree this much.

Person B pays money to person A in USA. This transaction in itself is not illegal unless the money is earned illegally by person B. If the source of the money is legal then these two transactions cannot be deemed illegal from any angle. I am not a law expert but common sense says it cannot be.

These two transactions are not exactly transferring funds from one country to another. If you can show me that any government would deem any of these transactions as illegal then I would agree that it is money laundering provided the funds were earned illegally in the first place.

[Kabir]

Originally Posted by layperson
Once again you are forgetting that money laundering has to do more with illegally earned money.

Let me dumb it down further what I advised zeeshan: Person A pays person B money in Bangladesh. This transaction cannot be deemed illegal unless the sources of the money is illegal. I hope you agree this much.

Person B pays money to person A in USA. This transaction in itself is not illegal unless the money is earned illegally by person B. If the source of the money is legal then these two transactions cannot be deemed illegal from any angle. I am not a law expert but common sense says it cannot be.

These two transactions are not exactly transferring funds from one country to another. If you can show me that any government would deem any of these transactions as illegal then I would agree that it is money laundering provided the funds were earned illegally in the first place.

Sure, thanks for dumbing it down - I feel a lot smarter now. You've made your point clear. It's not money laundering - it's illegal transfer of money. Happy?

Originally Posted by ammark
good thread, but only one answer: There is no legal way to take out the whole amount of money from Bangladesh

Bangladesh Bank does not such want such a huge amount of Money to leave Bangladesh, so they have all sorts of restrictions in place.

Hence it's illegal.

What most people in BD don't get is, using loopholes in our laws doesn't necessarily make something "legal". I hate it when the biz folks say "I didn't do anything illegal, I just used the loopholes in our legal system". What effing difference does that make?

Originally Posted by layperson
@shuziburo and Tiger eye: I work in a bank so I am well are of these. Any transactions over $10k are reported but not all transactions are investigated. They are investigated if it is suspicious.

Correction - you don't work at a bank. You work in the insurance side of a financial institution. Hence your source is bhua.