Techie quits toxic US job, returns to India with ₹37 LPA salary: ‘I miss the US lifestyle’

The techie said that he quit his job at a US startup because of the toxic work environment, but is now second-guessing his decision.

An Indian tech professional’s Reddit post about leaving the United States just as his permanent residency application moved forward has struck a chord with thousands navigating the brutal reality of the H1B system.

An Indian techie talks about quitting his US job and returning to India. (Pexels./Representational Image)

In a post shared on Reddit, the techie said that he quit his job at a US startup because of the toxic work environment — he was regularly humiliated at work, to the point where he would sit in his car and cry after office.

Some background on his case

The techie wrote that he moved to the US in 2022 on an H1B visa from a Big 4 firm in India, encouraged by verbal assurances that he would eventually be hired permanently in the US. Trusting those promises, he built his long-term plans around settling in America — a childhood dream, he said.

After two years of working on an H1B visa, he was told that he would either have to find another job in the US or return to India.

“I didn’t want to give up on my dream of settling in the US, so I started searching. The only offer I had at that time was from a very small boutique startup, so I joined,” the techie said.

Toxic environment at startup

Unfortunately for this Indian techie, working at the boutique startup proved very difficult. The startup filed his PERM application, which was approved after a year and a half. But those 18 months, he said, were “the hardest phase” of his life.

With more than 11 years of experience, he expected architect-level responsibilities. Instead, he was relegated to working solely as a developer.

He described a toxic work environment where his only teammate routinely humiliated him, eroding his confidence and self-worth. “My only teammate (a Russian colleague) would regularly humiliate and verbally demean me,” he said.

The company, despite being a decade old, had no stable clients and remained perpetually in “stealth mode”. Sales meetings failed, growth stalled, and the pressure mounted.

“I slowly lost confidence and started questioning my own competence,” the Indian techie wrote.

The search for a new job

The Indian professional began looking for new jobs, but this proved tough. With the recent upheaval in the H1B visa system and a brutal job market, jobs in the US were scarce.

“The US job market was brutal,” he wrote, adding that switching jobs was far harder than he had anticipated. Some days, he would sit in his car after work and cry — “I used to sit in my car after work and cry,” he said.

“After 1.5 years, completely exhausted and emotionally broken, I decided to move on. I searched in both the US and India,” the techie revealed. Finally, he received two offers — one paying $124,000 in the US, and another offering ₹37 lakh per annum in India.

The techie decided to return to India. “Ironically, on the same day I resigned, I received the email that my PERM was approved,” he said.

PERM, which stands for Program Electronic Review Management, is also known as “Labor Certification”. It is the crucial first step to securing a green card which allows foreigners to live and work permanently in the United States.

Returning to India

By then, he said, he had nothing left to give. The thought of enduring another year for the I-140 approval and completing the 180-day requirement felt impossible. He gave up the green card path and moved back home.

“At that point, I was so mentally drained that I didn’t have the strength to continue another year just for the I-140 and 180-day rule. I gave up and came back,” he said on Reddit.

Now, back in India, he has a job where he is respected and his stress levels are lower. Even so, the techie can’t help second-guessing his decision to leave the US.

“Now I am in India working as a Senior Architect in a large services company. I am respected, leading teams, making enterprise decisions. My stress levels are much lower than in the US startup,” he said.

Even so, a sense of regret lingers.

“But I deeply miss the US lifestyle. It was my childhood dream to settle there permanently,” he said.

The techie said he is now plagued by questions: What if he had endured one more year, if he had waited just a little longer, if he could have switched jobs after securing his immigration status.

“Did I walk away from a golden opportunity?” he asked. “I feel peaceful in India — but unfinished inside.”

(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)