‘It is good to be home’: former H-1B holder on the relief of working in India

“It is good to be home.” That was the conclusion of a Redditor who recently left the US after 11 years and moved back to India permanently, describing the experience of filling out a job application without the familiar dread of a visa sponsorship question.

On the H-1B visa, the person wrote, “you are always one layoff or one lottery rejection away from packing your bags. The background anxiety never actually goes away.” Now sitting in a cafe in Bangalore, weighing whether to build something of their own or take a corporate job, they described the moment that crystallised their decision to return.

While filling out a job application on an Indian portal, they reached a familiar question at the bottom of the page about work authorization. “For over a decade in the US, that question was my nightmare,” they wrote, recalling how checking ‘YES’ to needing visa sponsorship made them feel “like a burden, like you are an expensive complication instead of a talented professional.”

This time, they clicked ‘No.’ “I cannot even describe the rush of emotion that hit me. I literally sat back and just stared at the screen for five minutes. It felt like a massive weight rolled off my chest,” the post read. “I do not need a company’s permission to live here. I do not need a government lottery to decide if I can keep my house. I do not need a lawyer to approve my life.”

The Redditor acknowledged the challenges of the move, including reverse culture shock, heavy traffic and humidity, but said the feeling of submitting an application “without the ghost of immigration hanging over my head” confirmed they had made the right choice.