“I feel free,” said Swapnil Sagar, a former Microsoft professional. After a decade in the United States, he gave up on what many called the “American Dream” and returned to India, citing visa uncertainty and job insecurity as the main reasons for his decision.Sagar is an Indian tech worker who has worked in the United States for about a decade and returned to India after a long career high and repeated pressures to immigrate. In an interview with American Bazaar, he details his journey from India to the United States and back, including study, work, frustrations and eventual relocation.“To many people, my decision may seem irrational. But I wanted to escape a life of constant visa troubles and job insecurity. Life in India is challenging, but I feel freer,” Swapnil Sagar said.Sagar’s journey began in India, where he worked at Accenture before deciding to pursue further studies in computer science. He moved to the United States to study at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he said, “Let me start from scratch,” Sagar said.He added: “I had a good career in India. I was working at Accenture; I was single and doing well. But I wanted to study and was particularly interested in computer science, so I decided to apply for a master’s degree in the US. I chose the University of Illinois at Chicago because it had an excellent computer science program.”He initially managed to work in F-1 status and later in STEM OPT status, but his long-term plans were derailed by repeated visa uncertainty. “Once my H-1B petition was issued, the real U.S. visa reality began to set in. My H-1B was not approved on the first two attempts, so I ended up using up almost all three years of my STEM OPT employment,” he said.Even though he was finally selected in the H-1B lottery, his situation changed again. “I was happy when my third H-1B was finally approved, but just when I was getting ready for a real job in the United States, my employer fired me during visa processing. The employer who applied for my H-1B! My H-1B was voided.”Despite the setback, he rebuilt his career, working at different companies and then at Microsoft. During this period, he married and bought a house in Houston, a stable phase in his life. However, this stability was short-lived. “In May 2025, Microsoft laid me off out of 10,000 employees,” Sagar said.After the layoffs, Sagar and his wife questioned their future. His wife was on an H-4 dependent visa and was unable to work, which also affected their decision. He pointed to the frustrations of paperwork, visa dependence and uncertainty about the U.S. system.“I felt like the United States was no longer the same place I had come to study,” he said. “Most of my working time was wasted filling out forms and documents that didn’t provide stability.”Eventually, the couple decided to return to India and settled in Bangalore, where their family lives. “I do miss the clean air and the smooth journey to my destination,” he said. “Also, the work culture in India can be onerous, but despite this, I feel free as my life is visa-free and both my wife’s and my parents are nearby.”Sagar is now working as a software developer in India again. He said he still looks back on his time in the United States but believes the move gave the family a sense of control and intimacy that he valued more than his previous life abroad.