The H-1B illusion: Why returning to India makes more sense than ever

For generations, the H-1B visa represented success, the golden ticket to Silicon Valley and the world’s innovation frontier. Yet in 2025, that dream feels increasingly hollow.

Thousands of skilled Indians remain trapped in green card backlogs and career ceilings, while India itself is transforming into a global hub of opportunity.

For many, the question is no longer “How do I go to the U.S.?” but “Why am I not building in India?”

The Dream, and the Drift

Every year, tens of thousands of Indian engineers wait for H-1B visas, hoping to work for tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Meta. For decades, the H-1B visa symbolized achievement for Indian engineers, a mark of talent, ambition, and global success. Families celebrated selection notices as badges of pride.

But as physicist Michio Kaku once said, H1B is “America’s secret weapon.” The uncomfortable truth is that Indian engineers have powered the rise of American tech, while India itself still waits for the same energy to be directed homeward.

What starts as a dream of learning and exposure often turns into a cycle of compliance and waiting. Each renewal, petition, and immigration form subtly reshapes ambition into anxiety.

Building self-reliance

Look at China, which built its own internet giants — Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance, BYD — and cultivated local ecosystems that rival Western platforms.
Or Israel, where a small population turned its focus on defense and deeptech innovation, making it the “Startup Nation.”

Both countries succeeded because they turned inward, not in isolation, but with intent. They empowered their talent to build for their own economies first.

India’s moment is now. The government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat vision isn’t just a slogan, it’s a call to creators, coders, and founders to make India not just a consumer of technology, but a producer of innovation.

India’s Turning Point: From Brain drain to Brain gain

India’s story is changing. We’ve gone from exporting engineers to exporting innovation.

• Massive Market: 1.4 billion people, 800 million internet users, the largest growth opportunity on earth.
  

• Policy Support: Simplified compliance, startup-friendly policies, and growing VC interest in Bharat-focused businesses.

• Ecosystem Depth: Affordable tech talent, thriving incubators, and access to both Tier 1 and Tier 2 innovation hubs.

• Emotional ROI: The chance to build something that matters, not just another app, but an India that stands tall.

Why returning makes strategic sense

Returning to India is no longer a sentimental choice, it’s a strategic one.

• Access to a billion-person market: India is the fastest-growing major economy and the largest open-internet market in the world.

• Supportive policy environment: Initiatives like Startup India, Make in India, and Digital India have dramatically lowered barriers to entrepreneurship.

• Abundant talent: Over 1.5 million engineers graduate annually, making hiring and scaling easier and cheaper than almost anywhere else.

But perhaps most importantly, purpose is a currency here. Every startup built in India creates ripple effects like generating jobs, improving livelihoods, and shaping the country’s global standing.

The return of the builders

A quiet wave of reverse migration is already reshaping the startup landscape.
Former Silicon Valley engineers are founding AI, clean-energy, and SaaS startups in India. Global VCs are following them.

“In India, the purpose is the new currency. Every startup built here builds the nation too.”

A founder’s call 

The next decade belongs to those who bet on India. Let’s stop defining success by how far we go, and start defining it by what we build for home.
Every startup launched here brings India one step closer to becoming a true superpower — one built not on borrowed opportunity, but on homegrown vision.

“The future of India won’t be outsourced. It will be built — line by line, code by code, by those who dare to come home,” Raghunath Nandyala.