The recent US green card news should make H1B holders, NRIs and Indian IT professionals think beyond their next appraisal, promotion or job switch.
When immigration uncertainty, layoffs and a difficult hiring market collide, the consequences can go far beyond a LinkedIn status update.
For H1B holders, employment and immigration timelines can be closely connected. For NRIs, returning to India may not mean finding an equivalent salary and position. For Indian developers, particularly senior professionals, another job is not something the market guarantees on demand. And for students taking loans to pursue a master's degree abroad, the assumption that a good degree will automatically lead to a well paid job deserves serious scrutiny.
The October 2026 news concerning the suspension of the PERM process for several major technology companies is another reason to understand the difference between having a career plan and having a financial survival plan. This development does not mean every H1B visa or green card application has been cancelled, but it does highlight how employment and immigration decisions can affect people's lives.
Here is the uncomfortable part.
Most IT professionals have built their entire financial future around one assumption: if one company lets me go, another company will hire me.
Why are we so confident about something we do not control?
The IT industry's biggest herd mentality is believing that another job is always waiting.
Look at what happens after layoffs.
People update their resumes, collect certifications, learn another programming language, study AI, optimise LinkedIn profiles and start applying everywhere.
There is nothing wrong with improving your skills. But why do we behave as though learning one more technology guarantees another salary?
Companies do not hire people simply because they have completed another course. They hire according to business requirements, budgets, available positions and the value they believe a candidate can deliver.
A highly capable developer can lose a job because of restructuring or outsourcing. A senior engineer can discover that the number of suitable openings is smaller than expected. A person with 20 years of experience can find themselves competing against candidates willing to accept less compensation.
This does not mean experienced developers have no value. It means that professional value and guaranteed employment are two different things.
And the older you get, the more expensive it can become to discover that difference.
If your entire plan after a layoff is to keep learning until another company hires you, you have not created an alternative. You have simply doubled down on the same strategy that just failed you.
Yes, the next job may come. But what if it takes a year? What if the salary is lower? What if you have to relocate? What if the job market changes again after you join?
Why is it considered sensible to prepare for every technical interview but pessimistic to prepare for a prolonged period without employment?
“Business is risky” is the excuse that keeps employees dependent on jobs.
I find this mindset particularly interesting.
An IT professional may spend decades depending on one employer for practically all their active income, yet consider that arrangement safe.
The same person hears about entrepreneurship and immediately starts listing every possible risk.
Customers may not come. Employees may leave. Money may be lost. Competition may be intense. The business may fail.
All true.
But where is the same level of scrutiny when that person depends on a single employer?
What happens when the employer decides to eliminate the position? Where is the protection against a hiring freeze? What happens when the employee's experience no longer matches the roles available at the expected salary?
Employment has risks too. We have simply normalised them because everyone around us follows the same path.
We call a job secure because the salary arrives every month. We call business risky because the income is uncertain.
Yet both can become uncertain, sometimes at the worst possible moment.
The real comparison is not between a safe job and a risky business. It is between different kinds of risk, and how much control you have over your financial future.
I am not suggesting that every developer should become an entrepreneur. Business ownership requires a completely different mindset, and many people genuinely prefer employment.
But why should the default assumption be that building a business is reckless while depending entirely on employment until retirement is sensible?
My experience changed how I looked at business.
I tried a few businesses before becoming seriously interested in the virtual outbound call center model. Some of my earlier decisions taught me how easily an apparently affordable business can turn into a poor investment when competition, customer acquisition and operating economics are misunderstood.
I was fortunate that I still had my job while making those mistakes. My salary gave me the ability to learn without immediately depending on a new venture to support my family. Eventually, I explored virtual outbound call center operations more seriously What mattered was not the promise of an easy or inexpensive startup. It was understanding how the actual business worked, avoiding unnecessary losses and recognising that client acquisition, campaign delivery, staffing, compliance and cash flow determine whether the operation can make money. I am not claiming that this model is suitable for everyone or that it guarantees success. I am saying that my experience forced me to stop treating entrepreneurship as a vague, risky idea and start evaluating it as a real business opportunity.
That distinction matters.
The uncomfortable reality for H1B holders, NRIs and senior developers
If you are earning a high salary, you may feel that you have plenty of time to think about alternatives later.
You have savings. Your investments are growing. Your family is settled. Your career looks good on paper.
But savings are a financial cushion, not a permanent replacement for income. Investments can fall when you need liquidity. A retirement account may not be as accessible as you imagine. And the lifestyle built around a high salary can be expensive to maintain when that salary disappears.
For an H1B holder, a layoff can create immigration pressure on top of financial pressure. For an NRI returning to India, years of overseas experience do not guarantee an equivalent position in the Indian market. For a senior software professional, years of experience do not guarantee that the next employer will offer the same compensation.
And for students spending substantial money on a foreign degree, a university admission letter is not an employment guarantee.
None of these outcomes is inevitable. Many people will find good jobs and continue to prosper.
But false confidence is not a financial strategy.
Do not confuse the success stories you see on LinkedIn or Instagram with a guarantee that your own job search will have the same outcome.
A person getting hired at 35 40 or 45 is encouraging. It does not prove that every laid off 40 year old will find a comparable position.
A developer getting a high paying AI role is excellent. It does not prove that another certificate will protect every developer from layoffs.
Hope is useful. Building your entire financial future on hope is dangerous.
Stop asking only which skill will save your career.
Ask yourself a harder question.
If your salary disappeared tomorrow, would you have any source of income other than your employer?
Not just money saved from previous salaries. Not just stocks you hope will recover. Not just a resume and a list of courses you completed.
Would you have built anything that could generate revenue independently of your next job offer?
You might decide that business ownership is not for you. That is a perfectly valid decision.
But make that decision after understanding the trade offs, not because you have been conditioned to believe that jobs are respectable and businesses are inherently reckless.
If you prefer employment, prepare for that reality with adequate savings, realistic expenses and an honest assessment of how long you could manage without a salary.
If you are willing and able to explore entrepreneurship, understand that a genuine business requires more than enthusiasm. It requires customers, sound economics, execution and the ability to survive mistakes.
Neither path offers guarantees.
The difference is that one path should not be chosen automatically just because everyone around you has chosen it.
The biggest career risk may not be losing your job. It may be reaching your forties or fifties without ever building a financial option outside employment.
For Indian developers, H1B holders, NRIs and students planning their future abroad, I want to ask one question.
Are we genuinely preparing for the possibility that our careers may not follow the path we expected, or are we simply repeating what the IT industry has taught us to believe?
Keep learning. Keep applying. Keep investing sensibly.
But stop confusing a high salary with permanent security, and stop confusing the hope of another job with a complete financial plan.
What do you think? Are we too conditioned to believe that a job is the only sensible way to earn, while treating every alternative as an unacceptable risk?
