I am getting married this year and will do all the gold and wedding shopping in Pakistan this year. I need to take a large sum of money. They only allow for $10k per person on the plane. How can I take this large amount of money with me? Does anyone have any experience taking a large amount of money to Pakistan? Do I have to fill out any forms, etc? Also, what is the safest way to take this cash to Pakistan?
Thanks to all who help.
Re: How do I take a large amount of money to Pakistan for a wedding?
Are you going by yourself? There will be alot of questions. Me n my mum went and she had 5 grand on her. And we had quite a few questions about it. But basically i had half so did she. So it was like spending money. Jus let them know your planning a wedding. However you shud take a few people with you and let everyone carry 3-4 grand each.
Oh and i think men get more questions about large amounts of money.
Im traveling from the US to Pakistan. I have a few ppl going with me but I need to take more money than the normal allowed amount.
Does everyone here just take cash to Pakistan or do some use a different method?
Thanks for the reply and keep the replies coming!
I am getting married this year and will do all the gold and wedding shopping in Pakistan this year. I need to take a large sum of money. They only allow for $10k per person on the plane. How can I take this large amount of money with me? Does anyone have any experience taking a large amount of money to Pakistan? Do I have to fill out any forms, etc? Also, what is the safest way to take this cash to Pakistan?
Thanks to all who help.
really..they just allow 10k..i didnt know that...i never heard that they had restriction on carring cash on plane..but anyway how do they know how much cash you carry..i am sure they never know
Re: How do I take a large amount of money to Pakistan for a wedding?
I dont get it, do you HAVE to say what amount of money you have? Are htey going to search you for that amount or something? 
Re: How do I take a large amount of money to Pakistan for a wedding?
**first of why in the world wud u wanna take large sum in CASH...u may have to declare the amount on ur customs/immigration card that u fill out b4 landing. any mis-statement will land u in huge difficulty. besides, this will raise suspicion indeed...they might even link u with terrorism. i go to India all the time and i've to declare.
its extremely unsafe to carry large sum of cash in pakistan/india anyways.
u can carry money safely and legally by wiring the money ahead, take travellers cheques, make a draft, or simply use ATM or Credit Card. i used my debit card on indian ATM's in very small towns. there are bank machines everywhere, i'm sure about that. u can access ur US account in Pak or anywhere in the world just like i do my canadian accounts in indian bank machines.
these days because of terrorism, anything CASH raises flags and rings bells everywhere. even buying an airline ticket with cash is asking for trouble.
be a wise travellers. carry draft/traveller's cheques, credit cards, legally transfer money using banks**
Re: How do I take a large amount of money to Pakistan for a wedding?
well usually they never know (we have carried very large sums back and forth few times, much much larger than 10K) but I would be concerned about the safety the most both back home and here. Unless you get caught in customs, they have no way of knowing that anyone is carrying 10K or more. Here is what we did:
1) Made sure no one knows except my father-in law that we have any money
2) Get someone to clear you from customs, sad but true and it works in our countries, for us because my father-in-law is a big deal in his state so we never have any issue.
3) Never keep all money in one place, even with one person, keep some in purse, some in carry on, even in carry on keep in couple different spots.
I feel like an illegal, law breaker don here :)
Legally you can:
1) Take some cash
2) wire transfer some before you go, get someone to wire transfer after you left as well. There is a limit to how much mire transfer you can recieve within a certain time frame, find out about that too.
3) take some as traveler cheques
4) use your bank card, you should be able to use it pretty much in any bank machine in pak.
Good luck!!
Re: How do I take a large amount of money to Pakistan for a wedding?
I would not advise taking large amounts of money. I heard of someone who took around 25k, she was stopped questioned for ages and the money was taken from her. she had saved the money through comittee therfore she had no proof where the money came from. I am getting married in pak soon inshallah . My family has transfered money over in advance to save the hassle.
Re: How do I take a large amount of money to Pakistan for a wedding?
yeah definitely take large sums of cash is a bad, bad idea. you just don't know who is corrupt in pakistan anymore, and even a customs official could just ask the money as a bribe to let you through, or scarily, could note down where you are going and arrange a house robbery, God forbid. i'd do as others have suggested and either wire the money or take traveller's cheques or just use a credit card or bank card to withdraw it. i will be going soon too iA for my brother's wedding shopping and we are doing one of the above and definitely not carrying cash. i don't know how we're going to arrange payment with the jewellers, but most definitely will not be carrying the large sum on us all at once and never all with one person.
Re: How do I take a large amount of money to Pakistan for a wedding?
we are planning to opening a bank account and transfering the money into it...
How can I use the travelers check? Do I have to have a bank account in Pakistan or can I redeem it at another place? Will any bank cash it or do I have to go to a "big" bank? Do they pay in US Dollars or would they pay in rupees? Will I have any hassle in cashing the check? Right now I have no bank account in Pakistan.
Thanks to everyone for the replies. I really appreciate the help because taking the money abroad is a big problem for me. I am not trying to take any illegal money. Everything is from my US savings banks account. It feels weird that I have to worry about taking my own earned money to Pakistan.
Re: How do I take a large amount of money to Pakistan for a wedding?
for those who are making silly comments about the limit of money, over here its the same law that u cannot take more that 10k on a place, otherwise there has to be some declaration.....im not sure fully but ive seen it in the airports...so shez not jst making things up...laws do exist ppl....
also depends on the types of relitives u have in pak...with us my nani has some close family so she wires money over bit my bit to avoid taking any major amounts in cash and then for my mamoo's wedding she took a small amount of cash mayb abt 2-3 grand i think im not sure...but the rest was all wired over already.......
not sure if this is an option for u....and also everyone is money hungry in pakistan so i wud be careful about telling ANYONE the amount of money and dnt talk infront of any naukars and kaam waali women.....be as discrete as possible!!
p.s. DO NOT TRUST ANYONE WITH YOUR MONEY!!!!!! everyone is corrupt my mamoo jst been thru **** at the airport few months ago :(
Re: How do I take a large amount of money to Pakistan for a wedding?
When we went back to Pak for my sister's wedding we had to fill out a form that said we were carrying more than 10K per person. If you show the form you should be fine.
Re: How do I take a large amount of money to Pakistan for a wedding?
Forget custom officers, have you thought about the risk of robbers and those lafangays (Allah forbid) who dominate Pakistan? Please do not carry any cash, it's just not safe. If you're in the U.S, you can open up a Bank of America account temporarily, they have branches in Pakistan where you can go to withdraw money. Or wire the amount to a local bank account there.
all i can tell u is that i travelled with over 50,000 euros in cash to pakistan and nothing happened ALHUMDULILLAH.
No questions asked, no robbers no search no nothing! And this was only last year.
I made small bundles of the cash and placed each bundle in a regular post envelop, placed this envelop into another envelop and so on about 3-4 times. Then I secured each packet with cellotape and placed the packets in different bags under the clothes etc.
Some people here (before I left for pakistan) were really scaring me that they are very strict at the airports, they will take the money off u and will investigate etc. , what if u lose the money....
I'm not a risk-taker but i didn't have a choice back then so I took the cash with me and it was all ok.
Re: How do I take a large amount of money to Pakistan for a wedding?
^^ really lucky....cos my mamoo went a few months ago and the airport ppl wer horrible....and majority of the time its happend with all my dads friends too.....
guess u was jst 1 in a million who didnt get stopped....
Re: How do I take a large amount of money to Pakistan for a wedding?
^ yeah you really are very fortunate mA! most people wouldn't be that lucky.
lol I didn't realise I was that lucky!
This was actually the first time ever that anyone in our family had to bring so much cash to pakistan. Never met anyone who had had this experience. My sis was getting married, mom was buying a house, so thats why urgent cash was needed. Anyways, when I got through without any problems, I though people have just hyped up the whole thing ... until now that I read ur replies! lol
Won't do it again....
Re: How do I take a large amount of money to Pakistan for a wedding?
My cousin, whos from U.S, attends med school in Karachi, a 20 year old kid. Last summer, he went back to Pakistan after spending holidays with his family here, and he was followed by robbers, all the way from the airport to his house. They took everything from him, money for his fees, passport, etc etc.
Someone might get lucky but sadly that's just not the case with everyone. So it's better to be safe than sorry, especially when such a huge amount of hard earned money is in question.
Re: How do I take a large amount of money to Pakistan for a wedding?
^ yeah man, my aun't sister flew in from dubai two days before Eid. she was waiting for a cab at the airport with baby in her arms and these guys drove up, showed her a gun and loaded all her stuff into their car and drove off! astaghfirullah, its terrible!! needless to say, Eid was not fun for them- all the presents for the family, the new clothes, baby stuff, the whole shebang- all gone.
man, i'm going soon and i'm scared now!!! :(