r/indiansinusa

Namaste,

I wanna know from people who are doing really well in America, how did your American dream begin ? Could you tell briefly about your American dream from starting to fulfillment.

How much time did it take you to be in the position that you are in ? What did you learn along the way ? What are the mistakes you made ? What are the things you wish you knew before moving to the USA ?

If you had to start from scratch, how would you approach it ? Does the American Dream exist for Indians in 2026 ? or would you try to make a life somewhere else ?

Your thoughts are much appreciated.

All credit goes to Siddharth Khurana on X (@SidKhurana3607). He’s a fellow ABCD who posts interesting content about politics, demographics, and maps. His source is the American Community Survey (ACS). Definitely give him a follow.

**Top metros by Indian %:**

1. San Jose, CA (9.9%)

2. Trenton, NJ (7.0%)

3. Yuba City, CA (6.3%)

4. Columbus, IN (5.4%)

5. San Francisco, CA (5.2%)

6. Stockton, CA (4.2%)

7. Raleigh, NC (3.6%)

8. New York, NY-NJ (3.4%)

9. Seattle, WA (3.4%)

10. Dallas, TX (3.2%)

**Top states by Indian % (2024 ACS):**

1. New Jersey (4.7%)

2. California (2.5%)

3. Washington (2.4%)

4. Illinois (2.2%)

5. Texas (2.1%)

6. Massachusetts (2.0%)

7. Virginia (2.0%)

8. New York (1.9%)

**Top places (min. 10k) by Indian % outside NJ and CA (the top two Indian states by %):**

1. Loudoun Valley Estates, VA (41%)

2. Morrisville, NC (35%)

3. Brambleton, VA (31%)

4. Bothell West, WA (29%)

5. McNair, VA (27%)

6. Mill Creek East, WA (25%)

**Top towns in New Jersey by Indian %:**

1. Plainsboro (39%)

2. Edison (38%)

3. South Brunswick (37%)

4. West Windsor (37%)

5. Parsippany (27%)

6. Robbinsville (26%)

7. Secaucus (25%)

8. Chesterfield (24%)

**Top places (min. 10k) by Indian % in the Midwest:**

1. Buffalo Grove Village, IL (16.85%)

2. Farmington City, MI (16.35%)

3. Maryland Heights City, MO (16.10%)

4. Troy City, MI (14.53%)

5. Novi City, MI (14.03%)

Any surprises? I didn't expect Columbus, IN to be in the top 5 metro.

Hey everyone,

I recently attended a dinner where a colleague's cousin (a textbook redneck) dropped a series of mind-boggling comments. I wanted to share them here to see if anyone else encounters this specific brand of confident ignorance.

Here is a recap of the conversation after I got my plate served at a fine-dining Italian restaurant:

The Lasagna Comment: As the waitress served my food, he completely unironically told me, "Yeahhhh... You won't get a lasagna in India." I guess he thinks 1.4 billion people are entirely cut off from global cuisine and cafe culture.

The "Yellow Animal": He then asked, "What is that yellow animal that people in India travel on?" I had literally no idea what he meant. I guessed elephants and told him medieval kings used them, but I have no clue who he thinks is commuting to work on a yellow animal.

The Immigration Speech: He casually dropped, "I don't mind people coming here but they have to work." I actually agreed with the core sentiment. I mentioned that I support meritocracy, respect for talent, and even find recent wage-based visa rules rational for cutting out fraud. But the delivery felt incredibly patronizing.

"Can you go to India?" - I literally had only one possible response to this; "Yes, why not? I can travel whenever I want...". Maybe he wanted to ask "Will you go BACK to India?". I have no idea what his question was.

The Election Question: Finally, the grand finale: "Are there elections in India?" This is the third time I’ve heard this in the US (twice before from Uber drivers). I just looked at him and said, "Yes, which is why we have a Prime Minister and not a Supreme Leader or a King." It is exhausting how some people here live in an absolute bubble regarding the rest of the world, especially when it comes to the world's largest democracy.

How do you guys handle these types of dinner table remarks? Do you educate them, laugh it off, or just ignore it?

Hey r/indiansinusa,

We’re a small game studio from Seoul currently developing a MOBA inspired by Indian mythology.

A quick note first: in earlier posts, some people pointed out that our concept art looked AI-generated. They were right. We used AI-assisted images as temporary placeholders during prototyping, and we should have been clearer about that from the beginning. Final production art is being redesigned separately, and we’re trying to approach this project more carefully going forward.

Today we wanted to ask about one specific character name and whether our interpretation feels respectful or misguided.

The character is called Mahabahu (महाबाहु).

https://preview.redd.it/z05r5ns1791h1.png?width=2584&format=png&auto=webp&s=062aebc32203789677f76e683d29f16976706768

We chose the name because the literal meaning — “mighty-armed” — became the core idea behind the character.

In our version, Mahabahu was born unable to walk in one of the empire’s poorest districts. After years of severe Tapas, he develops gigantic lightning-infused arms that allow him to move and fight. Over time, he becomes a military commander who believes that uncontrolled human desire leads to suffering, and that a very rigid sense of Dharma is necessary to protect society from chaos.

But we also know “Mahabahu” is strongly associated with Arjuna in the Mahabharata, especially through Krishna’s dialogue in the Bhagavad Gita.

As outsiders, we genuinely don’t know where the line is between respectful inspiration and misunderstanding, so we wanted to ask directly:

• Does using “Mahabahu” as a primary character name feel respectful in this context, or does it feel like misuse of an important cultural/religious term?
• Does his transformation through Tapas feel grounded in Indian-style mythological storytelling, or does it feel disconnected from the spirit of those traditions?
• Does his strict interpretation of Dharma feel like an interesting character flaw/philosophy for a MOBA character, or does it feel like we misunderstood the concept entirely?

We also made a short survey for more structured feedback: [Survey link]

But honestly, comments here probably matter more to us right now than survey data.

We’re not trying to just “reskin” mythology for aesthetic purposes. We know we’ll still make mistakes, but we’re trying to understand where those mistakes are before moving further.

Thank you for reading 🙏
— Arena of Avatars Dev Team, South Korea

I'm 33M, based in the US, and currently talking to someone through the arranged marriage process. She's in India and seems decent on paper. She's open to moving abroad, asks questions about my life and seems genuinely interested. But I'm really struggling with how to make a real judgement call given all the constraints involved.

A bit of background

I've tried meeting people here in the US and even had genuine feelings for someone, but nothing worked out. So here I am navigating the arranged marriage route. Honestly though, after going through this process with multiple people over several months, I've become a bit numb. It gets harder to feel genuinely excited about someone new every few weeks and I think that's affecting my ability to evaluate clearly too.

The core problem

I can only travel to India for a limited number of days before it starts affecting work. And traditional family setups usually expect you to meet once or twice, mostly under family observation, and give an answer fairly soon after. That's barely enough time to figure out if you actually connect with someone beyond surface level politeness.

There are things I just can't figure out from calls alone. I can't tell if her willingness to move is genuine alignment with my life or if she's primarily looking for a way out. I can't assess whether we could have a real honest conversation and not just say the right things in front of family. I can't get a read on her actual ambitions or whether our day to day lives would even be compatible.

The visa situation makes everything more complicated

If things do move forward we're looking at the H4 spouse visa route which currently has really long wait times just to get an appointment, forget processing. That means potentially multiple trips to India, one to meet, one for the wedding, possibly more for paperwork, all while trying not to completely derail work.

What I'm actually asking

For people who've been through this especially those living abroad who married someone from India, how did you make the call with so little time together in person? Did you push back on the one meeting norm and how did your families respond? How did you plan your trips around visa timelines without burning through all your PTO?

And for those where it worked out, what was the signal that gave you enough confidence to say yes despite all the uncertainty?

Not looking for follow your heart type advice. Just want to know how real people actually navigated this practically.

Final year students in Chicago. Building a dental tourism concierge service for uninsured Americans facing $30K+ dental implant quotes.

The model in one sentence: End to end concierge for full mouth dental implants in India patient pays $9K-12K all in (procedure + travel + 14-day recovery stay) instead of $30K 60K in the US. I handle everything from US side qualification to in country coordination to post trip follow up.

Why this niche specifically:

1. Dental is never meaningfully covered by US insurance $1,500/year cap on most plans, Medicare doesn't cover dental at all. Removes the "is this covered" objection entirely. Patient self pays regardless.
2. India is globally famous for dental implants — JCI/ISO clinics in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai use Korean/German/Swiss implant systems (Straumann, Nobel Biocare, Osstem).
3. Recovery is clean 14 days, no physiotherapy required, patient flies home comfortably.
4. Decision maker is the patient themselves (not a spouse or adult child making the call for an aging parent) — faster sales cycle.

Customer is NOT Indian-Americans (I pivoted on this): Indian Americans have direct contacts back home, no visa issues, no cultural friction. They don't need a facilitator. The real underserved customer is the uninsured American (45-70, self pay, often self employed or retired) who is paralyzed by US dental quotes but has zero cultural connection to India.

What I'm building:

• Not a referral business (introductions are free and disintermediated easily)
• A concierge service flat fee per patient for 60 day end to end management
• Moat is in the wrap around: family confidence layer (daily WhatsApp updates), recovery experience, US side aftercare network

Current state — radical transparency:

• Day zero. No customers yet. No entity yet. Co-founder and I are both F-1 visa holders.
• 5 partnership pitches sent to established Indian operators this week. 2 confirmed call slots so far.
• Plan: partner with one operator for first 5 cases (no hospital relationships day one), then evaluate direct partnerships.

Where I need help — 4 questions:

1. For anyone in healthcare/medical tourism: What's the biggest mistake first time facilitators make in their first 12 months that kills the business?
2. On regulatory exposure: I know I need a healthcare attorney before taking money but anyone navigated the US regulatory landscape on cross-border medical facilitation? (FTC health ad rules, state corporate practice of medicine laws, anti-kickback statute, HIPAA if I touch records). Looking for war stories.
3. F-1 visa structuring: Both founders are Indian students in the US. Likely structure is Indian Pvt Ltd with resident director + US side service contracts. Any founders here built a similar cross border setup? What worked, what didn't?
4. Honest pushback: I've been told "go work under someone first." I'm pushing back because every successful operator I've researched started by doing, not apprenticing. Is that the right read, or am I being naive?

Open to harsh feedback. Will reply to every comment.

As the post says, I will be traveling to the US for my term exchange but I'm scared to travel alone and need some guidance and some instruction for people who have travelled outside India

I have my flight from Del to Seattle (via Dubai) on 19th May, should I travel or cancel?
Checked the other flights, they are getting very expensive.

Asking this because the primary there is tomorrow and it appears very likely he'll win.

Hey everyone,

I'm looking to either join an existing YouTube Premium Family Plan or start a new one with a few people who are interested in splitting the cost.

Reaching out specifically to the Indian community here because I feel it's more reliable and comfortable than going with random strangers. If you're already on a family plan and have a spot open, or if you're interested in splitting a new plan, drop a comment or DM me!

About payments:

• Preferred: Zelle (easiest for me)
• Also available: PayPal

Happy to work out the cost split fairly. The YouTube Premium Family Plan covers up to 6 members, so there's room for a few people.

Drop a comment or send me a DM if you're interested.

Many Indian parents live alone while their children work abroad or in other cities.

I was thinking about an idea where verified college students could regularly visit elderly parents, help them with shopping/technology/hospital visits, spend time with them, and send updates to their children.

Not as nurses or caretakers, but more like trusted companions.

Do you think families would actually pay for something like this?
What would be your biggest concern — trust, safety, reliability, pricing, or something else?

I am 35, with a net-worth of 715K (625K in stocks and 75K in 401K, 15K in cash). Other than this, I have a few investments in India around 10 lakhs or below.

I am divorced - don’t have kids and pay a rent of USD 2740 (which includes 200 parking, but not utilities) in 1B1B, living in Seattle. I drive an economy car which is fully paid for. I’ve been working at Amazon for 8+ years (technical PM), of which 5+ years have been in the USA (L1A). I am making 280K in 2026, and will make ~290K in 2027 as per my CTC plan.

I am due for an EAD by end of year, and green card perhaps in 1.5 years (Mar ‘24 PD in EB1). I look to stay in USA long term.

Once I have my EAD or Green Card, I am flexible to move to elsewhere, provided I get a decent job (though I absolutely love Seattle).

I am wondering if I should invest in a house - and if yes should I get a townhome around 650K-700K or a single family home which is 1MM (with better appreciation)? If buying one is advisable, what’s a good down payment to go for?

How am I doing financially on a scale of 1 to 5 for my age and stage of career? Do you have any other financial advise for me?

What net worth do I need to retire in India or USA (remote location)?

U.S has big homeschooling culture, resources, community and support system.

Indian-Americans put a lot of focus on their kid's education and are financially well off. How come homeschooling isn't popular among Indian-Americans? What's the reason?

i spoke to my landlord today, its been a yr n six months since i shifted to the US, he shifted in 2005/2010, he was talking about how it is depressing here - hes invested crores in personal property in India, has businesses and property here and earns $15-20k passive income monthly and still wants to go back to india.. it shows how money cant buy happiness,

idk i know im a minority in india and being a woman theres barely any safety or respect, im from mumbai so ik it’s beautiful and progressive but it is what it is, i miss india. talking to my landlord just makes to wonder if i will ever be able to earn that kind of money, even if i do am i still going to yearn to back to India, also he mentioned he knows someone who can get me a job at a liquor store full time and earn close to $5-6k every month, rn i do a desk job at an insurance agency and earn $2.5k per month idk, the way the world seems rn it almost seems ok to ditch corporate coz in this economy it seems no one is growing in the corporate scene

im lost how do ppl succeed and stay happy here?

Hi,

I’m working as a 1099 independent contractor in a small LLC.

I am on initial OPT which ends in July and looking to apply for stem OPT. Would like to know is the stem OPT only eligible for W-2? Should I ask my employer to switch me to W-2 ? Or my current 1099 contract is eligible already?
Please let me know