Moving to India after a decade in USA - Thought process

Our family moved to United States in 2013 and after 9 years of living in US, decided to move back this year to India (our actual physical move is still few weeks away). This is a big decision and moving to India is an extremely popular topic in Indian families living in US. Multiple people in my immediate and extended circle have reached out to me to discuss the decision-making process behind it. Sharing a summary below in case it helps others undergoing similar thought process. Every situation is unique, so its ok if you don't relate to everything I share here.

Decision of moving to India is a top-down decision rather than a bottom up

In our family, we almost always make decisions based on a careful assessment of trade-offs. When buying a new appliance, we assess the cost we are paying, space it will take, frequency of usage etc. However, I felt decision of moving to India was not based on a net balance of carefully assessed trade-offs but rather a broader decision that we made and then started figuring out how to best optimize all the variables. It's more likely that your variables like career, kids' education, lifestyle etc. will start falling into place once you have made that top level decision as compared to struggle in converging on a decision with bottom-up assessment. A colleague of mine who also moved from US to India after a long time in US described it similarly as "A high order bit is set in your mind on moving, then everything will fall into place".

Key motivation - Previous generation and the next

Like most families, our decision was also primarily motivated by our previous generation(parents) and next generation(kids). While previously we claimed world to be a small place, Covid restrictions proved us wrong. In last 3 years, there were multiple instances where we were not able to be there for our families in any meaningful way. I strongly encourage you to also read The Tail End — Wait But Why to get a perspective on time and also on time spent with parents. It give a great visual narration of how we have so little time left with parents. Within last 3-4 years, I clearly felt that parents aged rapidly & had more than usual health related incidents. No easy way to say this but Waiting too much for the right time to move back, there might not be anything to go back to. Secondly with my elder kid starting middle school in US, my window for moving to India was rapidly closing to ensure kids also are able to settle in easily. Talking to multiple other families, one common recommendation was to make a move ideally when your kids are in elementary school here.

What will you repent more? Zoom out enough.

"What decision will you repent more?" This question was another one that helped us make a decision on this. One common challenge we all have is that there is always some reason for staying in US for longer - hitting a financial threshold, pay off mortgage, get that next promotion, get a green card, get citizenship, list goes on. I felt it pretty clearly that I will never be done with such a list. For visibility, I am 2 years away for being able to apply for naturalization but again, waiting another 2-3 years would have led to kids getting to upper middle school/high school making it difficult to move then. In IT jobs, I feel if you zoom out enough, moving to India is not that drastic of a decision now. India is a safe and comfortable country, many folks have moved from USA to India and you will be able to move back to US if you don't like it for some reason.

Lastly sharing a learning regarding immigration status

Citizenship vs Greencard

• Usually, I have seen folks move to India after getting citizenship in US which of course is a great time. However, if you are on Green card and thinking of moving, check out two resources. 1. Re-entry permit - this will give you provision to stay outside of US up to 2 years without risking your Greencard status. In theory, you can re-apply for this permit multiple times getting up to 5 years outside of US while saving your Greencard. 2. N-470 - application to preserve residence for naturalization - if you qualify, this helps to prevent reset of residency counter towards naturalization eligibility. There is a large backlog on these applications so start few quarters ahead of your move. I am pursuing both of these as I had my Greencard but needed another 2 years to apply for naturalization.

Thank you if you made it this far in this article. As we prepare for the physical move next month, we are extremely excited and also anxious about what lies ahead. What I am certain about is that there is a lot of learning, closeness to family and fun ahead. We will likely have new set of problems to deal with but hey, I feel good that I will not repent just thinking and not actually moving. I look forward to sharing my learnings and experience as I land back in Hyderabad and start life there.