Former meta tech expert Hemant Pandey says returning to India after spending eight years in the US was the best decision.

Former meta tech expert Hemant Pandey, who decided to return to India after living in the US for eight years, reflected on his life decision and said both he and his wife are happier in India because of the social circle. In a podcast with career coach Pritesh Jagani, Pandey said that he decided to leave the US because he did not like the H-1B restrictions, and although there is a huge pay gap between the US and India, Pandey said that he would always choose India, not any other country like Canada or any European country. Pandey said the US is best for a career as one can earn and save huge amounts of money here, but the second priority would be India – although he said he misses the blue skies and blue oceans.Pandey said that he started creating content in addition to his tech job in the US, but he was not allowed to monetize his content because he was H-1B, which was one of the reasons for his leaving the US.

How much money does an NRI need to come back to India?

Pandey said he came to America in 2016 to pursue a master’s in computer science. His first job was at Tesla. He was lucky enough to be selected in the H-1B lottery on his first try but was fired from Tesla. He found another job where he was also selected for an H-1B visa and the company was also processing his green card application.In December 2024, Pandey moved back to India and worked remotely for META for a few months. Then he took a break from his career, went on a holiday and has now been working for LinkedIn out of Bengaluru for the last few months.On the ‘return to India’ fund, Pandey said it would depend on individual cases whether their parents are in India or not, whether they have children or not, but one should not chase a figure and focus on a fixed amount. Pandey said that even a corpus of Rs 5 crore will not be enough for some NRIs if they have children who need to go to international schools in India, or who are planning to buy villas in India. Pandey said that he had a figure in mind and after reaching the figure he went back to India. Without disclosing the figure, Pandey said he set aside the money to buy property in a Tier 1 city in India. Also, neither he nor his wife were about to retire, so the corpus fund was in addition to their Indian income.Pandey said earning one-third of the US income in India is enough money to consider if NRIs are planning to come back to India.Pandey said that instead of chasing a fixed amount, NRIs who are planning to move back to India should decide on a date when they should take the step because this part is difficult.

life in india vs usa

Hemant said that life in America seems boring because people there do not know their neighbors. The work culture is such that unlike India, colleagues do not hang out after office. People are doing the same thing every day, which leaves a lot of room for self-improvement, introspection, etc. In India, life is hectic, but there is home help, 10-minute delivery, which saves a lot of time, which is otherwise spent in reaching office. But he is happy because he will not have to apply for a visa to meet his parents.