What to Pack for the USA from India (2026): The Honest List

The decision, category by category

Voltage: why your appliances will not work

This is the technical point most families get wrong, and it is not solved by the adapter someone bought at the airport.

India runs on roughly 230 volts; the US runs on roughly 110–120. A **plug adapter** only changes the shape of the pins so the plug physically fits — it does nothing to the voltage. An Indian appliance plugged into a US socket through a simple adapter is receiving about half the voltage it expects, which at best means it does not work properly and at worst damages it.

• Leave Indian hair dryers, irons, kettles, mixers, immersion rods and similar behind. Their US equivalents are inexpensive and designed for the supply.
• Laptop and phone chargers are almost always dual-voltage — check the small print on the brick, which will say something like "100–240V". If it does, a plug adapter is genuinely all you need.
• A voltage **converter** exists and is a poor solution for anything with a heating element or a motor. It is rarely worth the weight, cost or risk for a student.
• Buy a US power strip in your first week rather than carrying Indian extension boards.
• Check your phone is carrier-unlocked before you fly. Sorting that out from the US is a slower conversation than it is from home.

Food and customs, taken seriously

Every year students have items confiscated at the border, and occasionally face worse than confiscation — almost always for the same avoidable reason.

The US restricts bringing in certain agricultural products, and the categories that most affect Indian travellers include meat and meat products, many dairy items, fresh fruit and vegetables, seeds and plants. Rules change and depend on the specific product and its origin, so check the current guidance from US Customs and Border Protection rather than relying on what a cousin managed to carry through in an earlier year.

**The single most important rule is to declare.** You are asked on the customs form whether you are carrying food, and answering honestly is what protects you. Carrying a permitted item and declaring it is routine — an officer may look at it and wave you through. Carrying something and failing to declare it is a different matter entirely, and the penalty is for the non-declaration rather than for the food. Tick the box.

• Commercially packaged, sealed and labelled items are generally more straightforward than homemade ones — but still declare them.
• Homemade pickles, sweets and snacks are what families most want to send, and they are exactly the category where "sealed, labelled, commercial" does not apply. Expect scrutiny and be prepared to lose them.
• Do not bring seeds, plants or fresh produce. This is one of the firmer categories.
• A starter set of spices is reasonable. A suitcase of groceries is transporting things you can buy at an Indian store near almost any US campus.
• If in doubt about an item, the correct move is to declare it and let the officer decide, not to leave it undeclared and hope.

The things students ship and never use

• Six sets of Indian formal wear. Two get worn, once each, and the rest travel to another country and back.
• A year of groceries. Indian grocery stores exist in almost every metro with a student population, and the weight allowance was better spent elsewhere.
• Textbooks. Heavy, frequently the wrong edition, and usually available through the library or digitally.
• Bedding and towels, which are bulky, cheap in the US, and available the week you land.
• Indian appliances that cannot work on US voltage, which is the point above.
• Stationery in quantity. It exists there, and it is not expensive.
• A winter coat bought in India, which is covered at length in our winter guide and is the most expensive item on this list to get wrong.
• Large quantities of toiletries, which are heavy, sold everywhere, and often cheaper in bulk there than the excess baggage they cost to carry.

Hand luggage, and the delayed-bag scenario

Assume for planning purposes that your checked bags arrive a day or two after you do. It is uncommon and it does happen, and the students it happens to are the ones who packed everything important into the hold.

• All documents — passport, I-20, visa, admission and financial papers, transcripts. Our travel page covers why this matters at the border as well as afterwards.
• All medication, in original packaging with prescriptions. This is not a category to be separated from for two days.
• Laptop, phone, chargers, and a power bank.
• One change of clothes and basic toiletries in permitted quantities.
• Spectacles, and the spare pair if you have one.
• Your university contact details, your accommodation address, and enough cash for a first day — saved offline, not only in an email.
• Check your airline's current allowance and weight limits yourself, close to travel. Students plan around a friend's figures from last year and pay for it at check-in.

The first-week shopping trip

• Plan and budget for it. Bedding, kitchen basics, a power strip, cleaning supplies and groceries add up to a real one-time cost, which our budget page counts among arrival expenses rather than monthly ones.
• Go with a senior if you can. They know which shops are cheap, which are not, and what you do not need.
• Look for graduating students selling furniture and kitchen equipment. The end of a semester is a buyer's market and this is the cheapest route to a furnished room.
• Check whether your university runs a swap, a free store, or an international student welcome sale. Many do.
• Thrift and discount stores cover most of the non-electrical list at a fraction of new prices.
• Do not buy everything in week one. You will discover what you actually need by week three, and half of the list will have answered itself.

Frequently asked questions