An Indian professional who returned home after seven years in the United States is considering another move abroad, offering a reality check for Indians who believe that returning to India will permanently resolve the dilemmas of living overseas.
In a Reddit post that has drawn attention amid uncertainty over US immigration and employment-based Green Cards, the man said returning to India had been the right decision at the time. But changes in his family’s circumstances have altered what he wants from the place he calls home.
He moved to the US in 2012 to pursue a master’s degree and worked there until 2019. During the Covid period, he returned to India, settled in Pune and hoped to build his own startup.
For several years, the move delivered what he had wanted: proximity to family, peace of mind and a comfortable lifestyle. But parenthood has changed the way he evaluates his surroundings, prompting him and his wife to consider Malaysia, Thailand and Dubai as possible destinations for their next chapter.
“I don’t regret moving back. It was the right decision for that phase of my life. And moving out now feels like the right decision for the next one,” he wrote.
Why returning to India no longer feels like a permanent answer
The man’s account challenges a familiar assumption in the Indian diaspora: that returning home is the final step in resolving the tensions of life abroad.
For professionals who have spent years building careers overseas, moving back can mean reuniting with parents, recovering a sense of belonging, reducing the emotional distance from family and pursuing entrepreneurial ambitions. Those advantages can be substantial, particularly for people who feel that professional success abroad comes at the cost of personal connections.
The Redditor said India delivered several of those benefits after his return. Pune offered a comfortable lifestyle and made everyday life easier in ways he appreciated.
But the priorities that made the city attractive in 2019 were not necessarily the ones that would determine where he wanted to raise a child several years later.
He said he was increasingly concerned about pollution, the lack of public spaces, walkable neighbourhoods and safe places for children to play. His concerns were not limited to income, career prospects or the cost of living. They centred on the quality of the environment in which his family would spend its everyday life.
“None of these things bothered me nearly as much when I first moved back. But once you have a family, you start looking at places very differently,” he said.
The distinction is important. A city that works well for a single professional or a young couple may offer a different experience to parents looking for safe outdoor spaces, less exposure to pollution and greater independence for their children.
The post does not establish that every returning Indian will face the same problems. Instead, it illustrates how personal circumstances can change the criteria by which people assess a place to live.
Malaysia, Thailand and Dubai enter the picture
The couple are now considering Malaysia, Thailand and Dubai, although the account does not indicate that they have made a final decision or secured a move.
Their options also suggest that the choice is not necessarily between India and the United States alone. For internationally mobile professionals, other countries can offer alternative combinations of employment, infrastructure, family life and access to global opportunities.
The practical advantages of any destination would depend on the family’s circumstances, including employment, immigration status, schooling, healthcare costs and the ability to establish a stable long-term residence. The Reddit post does not provide enough information to determine how the three destinations compare for this particular family.
The man also acknowledged that years spent abroad had changed how he evaluated different places.
“I think once you’ve lived abroad for a significant part of your life, you inevitably keep comparing places. For a long time, I thought I just needed to settle down somewhere and stop thinking about it. But I’ve made peace with the fact that perhaps I’ll always feel this way to some extent,” he wrote.
His observation captures a dilemma experienced by some internationally mobile Indians: returning home can restore proximity to family and familiarity, while time abroad can also change expectations about infrastructure, public services and everyday convenience.
His conclusion was not that returning to India had been a mistake. It was that a decision that made sense at one stage of life did not have to remain the right decision indefinitely.
“One thing I’d tell people who are thinking of moving back to India: don’t assume that once you move back, everything will be sorted forever,” he advised.
The bigger dilemma for Indians weighing a return
The account comes as some Indian professionals in the US weigh their long-term prospects amid immigration uncertainty, concerns over H-1B employment and delays in employment-based Green Card pathways.
For workers whose ability to remain in the US depends on employer sponsorship, immigration rules can influence career decisions, family planning and the timing of a possible return. Yet the Redditor’s experience points to another dimension of the debate: even when the decision to leave the US is voluntary, returning to India does not necessarily end the search for a place that meets a family’s changing needs.
The two decisions also involve different calculations. Someone returning because of visa constraints may have fewer options than someone who can choose among several countries. An entrepreneur building a business in India may value proximity to family and access to the domestic market more than a salaried professional. Parents may place a higher premium on schooling, outdoor spaces and environmental conditions than they did before having children.
The lesson is not that India has failed the returning professional, or that another country will automatically provide a better life. His own account acknowledges that India gave him much of what he had sought when he came back.
Instead, his experience suggests that migration decisions are rarely permanent verdicts on one country or another. They are choices shaped by the circumstances, priorities and opportunities available at a particular time.