New Delhi: A growing number of Indian tech professionals are heading back from the United States amid mounting visa uncertainty, but their return is not translating into easier job prospects in India, a new survey by anonymous professional community app Blind has found.
The poll of 1,276 verified professionals in India shows that 53 per cent have witnessed “reverse migration” from the US due to visa-related issues. Of these, 36 per cent said colleagues or job candidates have already moved back, while another 17 per cent know people who are planning to relocate. The trend is particularly pronounced among employees of large multinational technology firms, with 57 per cent of respondents at Amazon, 58 per cent at Walmart and 55 per cent at Uber saying they have seen colleagues return from the US.
At the same time, these companies are rapidly expanding their Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India, especially in engineering and product roles. However, instead of broadening opportunities for the domestic tech workforce, many professionals feel the influx of returning talent is making the market more crowded and competitive.
Over half of respondents (51 per cent) reported that job opportunities in their roles had declined over the past year. Only 26 per cent said openings had increased, while 23 per cent felt the situation was largely unchanged. Many respondents see a mismatch between the aggressive GCC expansion and the number of new roles available to India-based professionals, noting that a significant share of positions are being filled by returnees with prior experience at the same multinational firms. This allows companies to retain seasoned talent while cutting costs by shifting roles to India.
Compensation pressures are also evident. A professional from Google quoted in the survey said “average pay has gone down in the last six months”, estimating that salaries in India can be around one-fifth of comparable US packages. For employers, relocating roles to India preserves institutional knowledge and reduces payroll expenses, while employees gain greater visa certainty and remain within the same organisation.
The impact, however, is uneven across specialisations. Professionals in artificial intelligence and machine learning appear relatively insulated from the slowdown: 42 per cent of AI/ML engineers reported fewer opportunities than a year ago, a lower share than in other tech roles. By contrast, 52 per cent of software engineers, 54 per cent of product managers and 56 per cent of data and analytics professionals said job prospects had declined, underscoring the rising demand for AI skills even as hiring in traditional technology roles softens.
Views on how the wave of returning professionals will affect careers are mixed, but overall sentiment leans negative. Around 40 per cent of respondents expect little or no impact. Nearly 24 per cent fear returning workers will directly compete for roles they might otherwise have secured, while another 15 per cent believe experienced returnees will push up hiring standards and make recruitment tougher. Only 21 per cent are optimistic that the influx of seasoned talent will strengthen the tech ecosystem and lift salary levels over time.
The survey points to a deeper structural shift in India’s technology sector. While the rapid proliferation of GCCs is drawing large investments and creating jobs, many professionals feel these opportunities are concentrated among those with international experience, particularly returnees from the US, rather than being broadly accessible to the wider domestic workforce.
The Blind survey was conducted between June 16 and June 25, 2026, among verified professionals in India across software engineering, product management, AI and machine learning, data and analytics, business operations, design, research, finance and consulting.