Ground work needed before joining to work in foreign countries

This is someone's work done for Korea offer[ which is suitable to all countries.]

Let me tell you what all ground work I did before accepting an offer in
Korea:

1) I googled for Work culture in Korea. That prepared me mentally for
'long-working' hours.
2) Googling again told me that 'Seoul' is one of the 5-costliest cities
in the world and inflation is a-bit high here.
3) I mailed to all the friends in my network asking if they know
anybody who ever been to Korea? I got 10-11 references.
4) I mailed all of them 10-11 questions asking about:
a) Indian Food Availability.
b) Working hours.
c) Taxation rules. And, as consultant committed falsely that tax is
0%, I made sure that I do not have to pay any tax back in India.
d) As 95% of companies provide accommodation, I asked for
approximate 'Flat maintenance charges' + 'Water-n-Room Heating
expenses' + 'Society maintenance charges' and 'Internet/ TV/ phone/
mobile Connectivity charges'.
e) Cost of Transportation (to-from company and personal).
f) A rough estimate on eatables/ fruits spendings.
g) Kid's education (its extremely costly)....and some more.

5) Through one of my friend, who is International HR, got a rough
salary idea. She suggested me **most important** thing... To ask my
employer to provide me a 'Sample Salary-Slip' before signing the
Contract.

Indian consultants for Korea make a fool of us by telling that
Tax is 0% and your Salary will be 2-times OR 2.5-times of Indian Salary
without telling us anything about high cost-of-living!

Thanks to my employer, they provided me salary slip in KRW and U$D.
After comparing it with the Indian consultant's 'commitments', there
was a difference of ~2000 U$D!

6) As I was not going to use food-coupons of my employers, I made sure
to add KRW 5000 per day instead. Not much for him but fair enough for
me.

7) Knowing about 'Long working hours' and 'working on weekends' helped
me to CrossCheck the rules with employer. My employer mentioned KRW
50,000 for working on weekends (which they actually give to their
regular employees).

If anything is NOT mentioned in Contract, it won't be given
;)

8) Through 'Sample Salary Slip' I got to know that, after end-of-year
when I will return back the 'National Insurance Fund' amount (may range
from $1000-$1500) can be deposited into your Indian Bank account. And
you need to fill a form for that in the last week, before you leave.

9) Though Employers mention in contract OR consultants commit that
"every company has IP-phone... and u can make any number of calls from
office desk..blah...blah..." Its you who should make sure that u GET
this facility actually, through Contract.

U can always ask ur employer for a 'Rough Draft-of-Contract'
before u sign.

9) My employer is very honest. However there may exist some employers
who *may* create problems in ur last month's salary. Keep a Check on
that!

The Indian consultant started with and offer of 25K U$D p.a. (in-hand +
accom + all charges).. and finally his words were -"this is the biggest
offer any Korean company has made for your Experience-slot".
...Not that much actually... But, I am really carefree about miscellaneous spendings!

All I did was, I spent ~2-weeks in all this. Ground-Work! Afterall, its my
life... it me who is sacrificing!!!

On the contrary, when I reached here... I met 2-friends in Pyeongchon
who were looking frustrated as Consultant showed them a mirage of 2-2.5
times salary.
They didn't negotiate for anything!!!!

Maintenance charges + Internet + Food + Room-Water heating charges all
these they were paying from their pocket and worked for free on
weekends as it wasn't mentioned in contract! Unfortunately, they
breached the contract and went back to India on -ve notes! :(