As visa uncertainty continues to shape career decisions for Indian technology professionals in the United States, many who return home are discovering that India’s job market is not delivering the opportunities they anticipated.
Rather than driving new hiring across India’s expanding technology sector, many returnees are rejoining the same multinational companies through their India offices, often at significantly lower salaries, according to a new survey by professional networking platform Blind. The arrangement allows U.S. technology companies to retain experienced employees while lowering labor costs.
Blind conducted the survey between June 16 and June 25, 2026, polling 1,276 verified professionals in India across software engineering, product management, artificial intelligence and machine learning, data and analytics, business operations, design, research, finance, consulting, and other technology roles.
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The survey found that 53% of respondents had seen colleagues or job candidates return from the United States because of visa-related challenges. Among them, 36% said the moves had already taken place, while another 17% said they knew people planning to relocate.
The findings also suggest a broader shift in how U.S. technology companies are managing their global workforce. Instead of replacing employees who leave the United States, many professionals believe companies are transferring experienced workers to their India offices. That approach enables employers to retain talent with institutional knowledge while reducing compensation expenses.
For returning professionals, the move offers relief from visa uncertainty but often comes with a steep pay cut. As one Google professional said on Blind, “Average pay has gone down in the last 6 months. So you might be looking at a 1/5th pay [of the US].”
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The trend appears especially pronounced at companies expanding their Global Capability Centers (GCCs) in India. According to the survey, 57% of Amazon employees, 58% of Walmart employees, and 55% of Uber employees said they had seen colleagues return from the United States because of visa-related issues. The companies have also continued to expand engineering and technology hiring through their India operations.
Despite continued investment in India’s Global Capability Centers, many respondents said the broader hiring market has become more competitive. More than half of those surveyed, 51%, said technology job opportunities have declined over the past year, while 23% said the market had remained largely unchanged. Only 26% reported an increase in available positions.
Many respondents believe the influx of experienced professionals returning from the United States is intensifying competition for those roles, with returnees increasingly filling openings that might otherwise have gone to candidates already seeking jobs in India.