‘The traffic is insane, the humidity is hitting me hard’: reverse migrant’s honest take on moving back to India

A Redditor who moved back to India after 11 years in the US on an H-1B visa did not shy away from the difficulties of the transition, even while describing a profound sense of relief at the move. “The reverse culture shock is definitely real. The traffic is insane, the humidity is hitting me hard and figuring out the right business problem to solve is going to take a lot of work,” the person wrote.

Despite those adjustments, the post centred on a specific moment of emotional release: filling out a job application on an Indian portal and encountering a familiar question about work authorization. “For over a decade in the US, that question was my nightmare,” the Redditor wrote, describing how checking ‘YES’ to needing visa sponsorship in the US made every application feel like it would be discarded automatically.

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,” they wrote, adding, “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 described the constant background anxiety of the H-1B visa, saying they were “always one layoff or one lottery rejection away from packing your bags.” Now in a cafe in Bangalore weighing corporate jobs against building their own venture, they said clicking ‘No’ gave them “the first time in my adult life” that they felt completely in control of their career.

“But hitting submit on an application without the ghost of immigration hanging over my head? I know I made the right choice. It is good to be home,” the post concluded.