Rs 90 LPA in Bengaluru or $300k in San Jose: Redditor asks if it’s wiser to move to US on an L1 visa

Redditor asks if Rs 90LPA in Bengaluru better than $300k in San Jose.

The dollar-rupee conversion is not always a straight calculation, especially when there are issues of lifestyle and career growth to be taken into account. $300k is more than Rs 90 lakh mathematically but a Redditor said he’s unable to make up his mind whether he should move to the US on a $300k offer in San Jose or whether he should continue in Bengaluru, where he is getting Rs 90 LPA. For context, he said that it would not be on an H-1B visa but an L-1, in which he will be transferred from India to the US to work for the same company. It’s a startup that he had been working for for around two years. He added that he is a 36-year-old married man with no loans, no kids — and his wife works part-time.The man said that career-wise he feels saturated in Bengaluru, so much so that he would call it borderline lazy as he also wondered whether he had any scope to grow more in Bengaluru. He said he spoke to his San Francisco region friends who dismissed his interest in taking the plunge but he showed a keen interest in exploring a US career and he said he researched the cost of living and concluded that he could be saving around $5k-6k per month in the US.The Bengaluru man was looking for genuine advice and the Reddit community was divided. Some people advised him to choose Bengaluru over San Jose and explained that $300K in the US would actually be a pay cut from his Rs 90LPA salary. They also reminded him that since he would be on an L1 visa, he would be tied to his company and if he’s fired, it would be a lot different than getting fired in India.But many Redditors said that, without any kids, he was in the best position to explore the US life and culture and business growth and in the worst-case scenario, he would just have to come back to India — but with dollar savings from the US. Some said they made a similar decision and never regretted moving to the US.

What is an L- visa?

The L-1 visa is a US work visa that lets a company transfer an employee from its foreign office to a related US office. This visa comes with a maximum stay period. Under current regulations, an L-1 worker whose employment ends can get a maximum 60-day grace period, or until the end of the existing authorised stay, whichever is earlier. But unlike H-1B, L-1 visa holders can not just find another US company and transfer their visa. A new employer would generally need to qualify for an L-1 relationship with a foreign entity and you would need to independently satisfy the L-1 requirements. In many ordinary situations, therefore, you’d need to move to another visa category or leave the US.