Laid off on the last day of OPT, Indian techie lands job with US company in India within 40 days, says, ‘I was not living there, I was just surviving’

Indian techie shares his experience of coming back to India from the US and landing a job within 40 days.

At a time when several Indian students and professionals in the US are staring at an uncertain future because of visa issues and the ongoing crackdown on OPT programs, Indian techie Aditya Kumar Thota shared his experience of getting laid off, looking for jobs in the US, then coming back to India without a job, and then landing a job with a US company in India within 40 days.In a YouTube interview with Pritesh Jagani’s education and career podcast, Aditya explained his situation — how his decision to come back to India was supported by his family and how he did not have a huge financial burden. He said he realized that he was just surviving in the US and not actually living. In Hyderabad, on the other hand, he said he stays with his parents, has their own house and his savings are also going up.Apart from India’s weather and traffic, the Indian techie who is now working as a project manager with Dun and Bradstreet said there is nothing much he has been missing much.Thota explained that he came to the US for his master’s at East Texas A&M University in 2023. He started working for Capital One on his OPT but on the last day of his OPT, he said he was laid off. It was in July 2025 and he got another job, though he started preparing mentally for returning to India. He said between July and November 2025, he got several offers but none of those materialized because of the visa sponsorship issue. It was also the time when the Donald Trump administration announced the $100K H-1B visa fee. The visa fee is still blocked by court orders but it created a lot of confusion and deterred many companies from hiring people on H-1B visa.Thota said he waited for the last chance of H-1B this year in March but then he wrapped up his US stay and came back to India. He said he started looking for Indian jobs in the US only but the active search started after he landed in India. Within around 40 days, he got a job in India.“If you are thinking to come back to India, don’t see it as a failure. Things are not in our hands. At the end of the da, it is you who has to live with yourself,” Thota said as a piece of advice.