Indians in the US: the 2026 guide to visas, settling in, tax, health cover, schools, temples and Diwali

The United States holds the largest overseas Indian population in the Ministry of External Affairs’ table of January 2026: 6,079,221 people, ahead of the UAE (4,344,008) and Canada (3,247,980). The US Census Bureau counts differently, and its figure is the one this site quotes: 4,856,473 people who reported Asian Indian as their race or as one of several, in the 2019–2023 American Community Survey (ACS). The survey is a sample, so every figure is an estimate with a margin of error, and it counts identity, not passports: the people in it are visa holders and green-card holders, naturalised citizens, and Americans whose families have been here for three generations.

That is the first thing to understand about Indian America: it is not one community arriving on one visa. It is a century of Punjabi farm labour, the doctors and engineers who came after the immigration law of 1965, the software workforce of the H-1B years, the students who now fill the master’s programmes, and a US-born generation that is a third of the whole. They share the same temples, the same Patel Brothers aisles and the same Diwali queue, but not the same rules: what you can do, pay and claim depends on your status and, in a country where states set the rent law, the income tax, the school boundary and the licence test, on the state you live in.

This page is the map, and it does not repeat the detail that has its own page. The visa routes and the H-1B are in the jobs guide; the card that keeps the door to India open after naturalisation is in the OCI card guide; the consulates and VFS are in the passport renewal guide; the money side is in sending money to India and the cost of living guide; and the luggage and customs are in what to take to India. The eleven city guides are listed below.

The official count, and what it counts

The figure this site quotes for the United States is 4,856,473: people who identify as Asian Indian, alone or in combination with another race or group, in the Census Bureau’s 2019–2023 American Community Survey (table B02018). The survey is a sample, so every figure is an estimate with a margin of error. It tabulates how people describe their race or origin; it is not a count by citizenship, birthplace or visa, so a graduate student on an F-1, a green-card holder, a naturalised citizen and a child born in Edison all fall into it, and it is the right figure for “how many Indian Americans”. It is not a head-count of everyone with Indian roots, because someone who wrote in only “Sikh” is tallied by the Census Bureau on a separate line. The newer 2020–2024 release, which the Atlanta and Edison guides already use, counts 5,061,927 (margin of error ±27,346), about 1.5% of the 334.9 million residents it covers.

No two of these should match, and none is a mistake. The census measure is identity, the Indian government’s measure is origin and citizenship, and the DHS and USCIS lines are flows of people in one year.

A short history, 1965 to today

The community is younger than most people assume, because the law kept the door almost shut until 1965. Indian labourers, most of them Punjabi Sikhs, reached the Pacific coast in the early 1900s and met hostility; the Immigration Acts of 1917 and 1924 then brought Indian immigration almost to a halt, and in 1923 the Supreme Court ruled a Punjabi Sikh ineligible for citizenship. The Luce–Celler Act of 1946 gave Indian immigrants the right to naturalise, and in 1956 Dalip Singh Saund of California became the first Indian American elected to Congress. By 1960 the Migration Policy Institute counts only about 12,000 Indian-born residents.

The change came with the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which ended the national-origin quotas and opened visas for professionals and for family. The people who came first were doctors, engineers, scientists and students with good English, and they founded the first temples, associations and Indian grocers; the Migration Policy Institute counts 206,000 Indian immigrants in 1980 and nearly 2 million by 2010. The Immigration Act of 1990 expanded the skilled-worker categories, and with 71% of today’s H-1B approvals going to India-born workers, the software employers around Silicon Valley, central New Jersey, Dallas–Fort Worth and Seattle’s Eastside are where the community now concentrates. The 2020–2024 survey counts 2.89 million India-born residents, and Pew Research Center finds that 66% of Indian Americans were born abroad and 34% in the US; the second generation is now an adult community with its own politics, temples, weddings and weekend schools.

Where the community lives: states

The ACS 2020–2024 counts, by state, Asian Indians alone or in combination:

The first five states hold 53% of the national total and the first three 40%. New Jersey has the highest share of any state, nearly one resident in twenty, and the next in order of share are California, Illinois and Washington. Behind them the community is spreading to the places where the jobs and the school districts are: Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Michigan, Arizona and Connecticut all count more than 65,000.

Where the community lives: metro areas

Two vintages of the same survey are shown, because most city guides quote the 2019–2023 figures and the newer release is more current. Where the first column says “not quoted”, this site has no 2019–2023 figure for the area and the city guide, if there is one, uses the newer survey.

By share of residents the picture is different from the count: in 2020–2024 the San Jose metro is 10.6% Asian Indian, the San Francisco–Oakland–Fremont metro 5.8%, Raleigh–Cary and Seattle 3.9%, New York 3.7% and Dallas–Fort Worth 3.6%. The Bay Area row is the wider combined area; inside it the San Jose metro alone had 209,006 and the San Francisco–Oakland–Fremont metro 269,131 in 2020–2024. The survey’s margins of error run from about ±3,000 for the smaller metros to ±10,000 for New York, so a difference of a few thousand between releases is noise, but Dallas–Fort Worth’s rise of about 27,000 is larger than that.

Who they are

Pew Research Center’s fact sheet of 1 May 2025, on 2023 data, finds that Indian Americans have a median household income of $151,200 against $105,600 for Asian American households overall, that 77% of those aged 25 and over hold a bachelor’s degree or higher and 45% an advanced degree, and that 84% of those aged five and over speak English proficiently. The languages spoken at home are Hindi (18%), Telugu (11%), Gujarati (10%) and Tamil (7%); many other languages follow, which is why a temple’s or a school’s language is worth asking about before you enrol.

South Asian neighbours

Indian America shares its streets with other South Asian communities. The 2020–2024 ACS counts, alone or in combination, 650,731 Pakistanis, 278,858 Bangladeshis, 241,049 Nepalese, 81,103 Sri Lankans and 28,046 Bhutanese in the United States, and tallies 31,813 people under “Sikh” as a group of their own. On Devon Avenue, Oak Tree Road and Jackson Heights the grocer next door is as likely to be Pakistani or Bangladeshi as Indian, and the festival calendars overlap on Diwali, Holi and Vaisakhi; the rules in this guide on renting, tax, health cover and schools apply identically to all of them. The differences are the consulate, the temple or mosque, and the aisle you head for.

Indian America is not one place, and the guides for eleven of its largest settlements are where the street-level answers are: the neighbourhood and the commute, the rent in that suburb, the temples with their addresses and the school district. Each opens with the Census Bureau’s count for its own area and each is linked to the national topic guides rather than repeating them.

A few places with large communities have no guide of their own yet. Philadelphia (145,042 in 2019–2023) and Detroit (105,635 in 2020–2024) are the largest; Austin, Phoenix, Miami, Sacramento, Raleigh–Cary and Charlotte each count between 55,000 and 80,000. The Indian events calendar for the US lists what is on across the country, including in the places that have no guide.

How to choose between them

Almost every city choice is really a choice between three things. The first is the job, and each city guide has a section on the employers and sectors around it. The second is the school district, because American public schools are assigned by address and the cost of a flat in a good district carries the premium; the cost of living guide prices it. The third is the state tax and the rent law, set out in the sections below. A household moving from Hyderabad or Chennai, deciding between a $2,000 two-bedroom in Frisco and a $3,500 one in Fremont, is comparing a state with no income tax on wages against one whose top rate is 13.3%, and the city guides are where that arithmetic is done for each place.

Every lawful way for an Indian citizen to work in the United States is a visa category, and none of them is a job-seeker visa: a B-1 visitor may attend an interview but may not work. The jobs guide gives the fees, the odds, the employers and the scams in full. This section is the summary, dated 23 October 2026, and it describes the rules without taking a view on them.

What the numbers say about who gets in

Indians dominate the H-1B. USCIS’s report on fiscal 2024 counts 399,395 approved petitions, 71.0% of them for beneficiaries born in India and 11.7% for China, and the two countries together are 89% of the continuing-employment petitions and 71% of the initial ones. On student visas, Open Doors 2025 counts 363,019 Indian students in 2024/25, up from 331,602 the year before and the largest national group, ahead of China’s 265,919; the same report’s autumn 2025 snapshot found new international enrolments down 17%, and 294,253 international students of all nationalities on Optional Practical Training. The jobs guide treats the second as the strongest route: a US master’s, then OPT, then an H-1B by change of status.

What changed in 2026

The wage-weighted lottery. A DHS final rule, published on 29 December 2025 and in force from 27 February 2026, replaced the random H-1B draw with one weighted by the wage level of the job offered: Level IV gets four entries, Level III three, Level II two and Level I one. Employers registered between 4 and 19 March 2026 at $215 a person; USCIS said on 31 March that it had enough registrations to fill the cap, including the master’s cap, and on 17 July that enough petitions had arrived for the 65,000 regular cap and the 20,000 master’s exemption. The jobs guide, which gives its sources, counts eligible registrations falling from 343,981 for the 2026 season to 211,600 for 2027, with 71.5% of those selected holding an advanced degree.

The $100,000 payment. A proclamation of 19 September 2025 required a $100,000 payment with certain new H-1B petitions filed from 21 September 2025, in effect those for workers who must be admitted from abroad; it did not apply to someone already in the US changing status. On 8 June 2026 the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts vacated the guidance that implemented it, and on 24 July the First Circuit refused to pause that order. USCIS’s H-1B page says DHS “will comply with the court’s order while DHS considers next steps” and still plans to collect the payment if the order is lifted. A proclamation of 18 September 2026 extended the payment to 21 September 2027, and on 30 September the Northern District of California, in Global Nurse Force v. Trump, barred the agencies from implementing the policies, the extension included. A federal court in Washington, DC upheld the proclamation in December 2025 and that case is on appeal, so the courts are split. The position has changed several times since September 2025: read USCIS’s H-1B page the week you or your employer file.

The end of open-ended student status. A DHS final rule published on 17 July 2026 and effective 15 September 2026 ends “duration of status” for F and J visa holders who enter on or after that date. They are admitted to the programme end date on the I-20 or DS-2019 plus a 30-day grace period, or to four years plus 30 days, whichever is shorter, and a longer stay needs an extension application to USCIS. A court challenge to the rule has been reported; we did not confirm its status, so check before relying on the date.

The green-card queue

Employment-based green cards are capped at 140,000 a year worldwide, with a per-country ceiling that India has exceeded for two decades, so an Indian-born applicant waits by priority date. In the October 2026 Visa Bulletin the final action dates for India were 1 February 2023 for EB-1, 1 November 2013 for EB-2 and 1 January 2014 for EB-3; the November bulletin was not out when we checked. An EB-1A or national interest waiver petition needs no employer and no labour certification, but only an EB-1 case shortens the wait, because a waiver keeps you in the EB-2 queue. DHS counts the effect on the flow: India-born people becoming permanent residents fell from 127,010 in fiscal 2022 to 78,070 in 2023 and 66,800 in 2024, which was 4.9% of the 1,364,090 new permanent residents that year, and 60% of the 2024 group adjusted status from inside the US. Five years after a green card comes the option of citizenship, covered in the citizenship section below.

Families, money and scams

A spouse on H-4 may work only with an employment authorisation document, available once the H-1B holder has an approved I-140; the spouse of an L-1 holder may work from the first day. India and the US have no totalisation agreement, so an H-1B worker pays Social Security tax from the first payslip with nothing credited back on leaving, which the jobs guide treats as a tax. The employer pays the government’s petition fees, and Department of Labor rules forbid deducting them from your pay, so a recruiter or “consultancy” that asks you for money in exchange for sponsorship is describing a scam; the Federal Trade Commission put reported fraud losses in the US at $12.5 billion in 2024, and its April 2026 consumer alert says that an unexpected job-offer text is probably a scam. The passport renewal guide covers what to do with an expiring Indian passport on any of these visas.

The first fortnight in the US is a sequence in which each step unlocks the next, and the order matters because several of them ask for a number that comes from an earlier one.

1. Documents in your hand luggage. Passport with the visa, the I-94 record, the approval notice or I-20, the offer letter, degree and marriage certificates and a recent photograph; the cost-of-living guide also advises an international driving permit alongside the Indian licence, and $3,000–5,000 in accessible dollars for the first fortnight, because deposits are often cashier’s checks.
2. A bed for the first weeks. A short-term lease or a furnished flat while you look, since a long lease needs the paperwork below.
3. The Social Security number. Apply in week one.
4. A bank account, then a phone line and a transit card.
5. Form I-9 at your employer on day one, verified within three business days, and the benefits enrolment, usually within 30 days of starting.
6. Health cover, from the employer’s plan if you have one.
7. The licence clock, which in some states is 30 days.
8. School enrolment for children, where the district’s documents are a lease and a utility bill.

The Social Security number

The Social Security number (SSN) is the nine-digit number the Social Security Administration issues to people who are authorised to work. Employers use it for payroll; landlords, lenders and banks use it for the credit file; and in some states the licence office will not proceed without it. SSA’s guidance for noncitizens is to start online and then visit a Social Security office with original documents within 45 days: proof of identity, age and work-authorised status, such as the passport with the visa and the I-94, or an Employment Authorization Document. It does not accept photocopies or notarised copies, and applicants aged 12 and over are interviewed in person unless they use the automated route open to some green-card and EAD applicants. The jobs guide gives the practical timeline: you may start work and complete the employer’s I-9 before the card arrives, and the card comes by post within one to two weeks of the office visit. You do not need an SSN to sign a lease, but apply in the first week anyway, because the credit file that makes the second lease easy is built on it.

The ITIN, for the spouse who has no SSN

An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number is a tax-processing number from the IRS for people who need one for a federal tax purpose but are not eligible for an SSN: typically the spouse of a visa holder, such as an H-4 spouse without work authorisation, or a dependant. It is applied for on Form W-7, filed with a tax return, and the IRS quotes about seven weeks, or nine to eleven in the January 15 to April 30 season or when applying from abroad. It is for federal tax only: it does not authorise work, qualify you for Social Security benefits or the Earned Income Tax Credit, or change immigration status, and once you receive an SSN you must stop using it. A child with only an ITIN does not qualify for the $2,200 child tax credit, which needs the child’s SSN; the $500 other-dependant credit applies instead, which the cost-of-living guide calls the commonest surprise on an H-1B family’s first return.

A bank account and a credit history

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s position, as Consumer Action summarises it, is that you do not need an SSN to open a checking or savings account and that many banks and credit unions accept an ITIN or other foreign identification; acceptance varies by bank and even by branch, so go in person with the passport, the visa and I-94, the offer letter and a proof of address, and ask before you go. Keep the Indian account, re-designated as an NRO account once you leave India, and use an NRE account for money from abroad; the sending money guide sets out which is which and what the US wants to know about them.

You start with no credit score, because a US lender cannot see an Indian credit file. There are two ways round that. One is to build a score: a secured card, or a card from a bank that accepts a passport, paid in full every month, produces a score in about six months. The other is to bring one: Nova Credit’s service translates credit data from countries including India into a US-equivalent score that some lenders will accept, and American Express has used it since 2019 for newcomers from India. Whether a particular issuer accepts it today is the issuer’s decision, so ask before you apply.

A phone

The big three carriers — Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile — charge $50–90 a line, and the smaller carriers that rent their networks, such as Mint, Visible, US Mobile and Google Fi, charge $15–30 a line on prepaid plans with no credit check, according to the cost-of-living guide. Bring an unlocked phone, because many US phones are eSIM-only, and keep the Indian SIM alive on the cheapest validity plan so that bank and UPI one-time passwords still reach you.

The driving licence, state by state

We found no state page that offers to exchange an Indian licence for its own, and California’s and Georgia’s say that an applicant with a foreign licence takes tests; each state sets its own deadline. Facts from the agencies’ own pages, read in October 2026:

Expect a written test and a road test, and book the road test as soon as the SSN arrives, because the wait for a slot is days in some states and weeks in others. Insurance for a driver with no US record is quoted above the state averages in the first year, $250–350 a month being common according to the cost-of-living guide, and it falls once you hold a US licence and have a clean year. The city guides say which office books fastest.

What a landlord asks a newcomer for

An American landlord decides on income and a credit score, and a newcomer has neither a score nor, yet, a payslip. The workarounds, in the order landlords accept them, are those in the cost-of-living guide: the offer letter and the first payslips, which large complexes near the big employers have a policy for; a larger deposit, typically one extra month where state law allows it; a guarantor service such as TheGuarantors or Leap, which charges 50–100% of one month’s rent; or several months paid in advance, which a private landlord will often accept and a corporate one will not. A passport and visa are enough to sign a lease; the SSN matters for the credit file afterwards. Expect an application fee of $50–75 per adult, a deposit and the first month’s rent at signing: on a $2,400 two-bedroom in Edison that is about $5,000 before any furniture. Most leases run 12 months, a six-month lease costs $100–200 a month more, and breaking one costs one to two months’ rent.

Housing fraud follows newcomers. The pattern in the Boston and Edison guides is the same everywhere: a flat at half the going rate offered by an “owner abroad”, a deposit demanded by transfer before you have seen the keys, a “broker” in a WhatsApp group who asks for a fee for a landlord’s listing, a landlord who wants several months in cash. Nobody legitimate asks you to pay to see a flat.

The deposit and fee rules, by state

The law that governs your deposit is your state’s, and sometimes your city’s. As the city guides give them in October 2026:

The neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood rents, the commute and the local rules are in the city guides.

What a month costs

Zumper’s National Rent Report for September 2026 puts the median US one-bedroom at $1,518 and the two-bedroom at $1,903, up 0.1% and 0.5% on a year earlier. The cities where Indians cluster are well away from that median. Zumper’s city medians for September 2026, one-bedroom and two-bedroom: San Francisco $4,400 and $6,340; San Jose $2,890 and $3,710; Jersey City $2,750 and $2,910; Chicago $2,200 and $2,530; Seattle $1,900 and $2,710; Atlanta $1,630 and $2,060; Dallas $1,320 and $1,800; Austin $1,250 and $1,600.

The cost-of-living guide turns those into household budgets at ₹95 to the dollar (Wise mid-market rate, 17 October 2026), as estimates for a vegetarian household that cooks at home. A family of four in the Bay Area spends about $10,000 a month (₹9.5 lakh) and needs a gross salary of about $155,000 in California to cover it after tax, with nothing saved; the same family in Dallas–Fort Worth spends about $7,900 (₹7.5 lakh) and needs about $112,000 in Texas; a single student in a mid-cost university town spends about $1,750 (₹1.66 lakh). For comparison, the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that the average American household spent $78,535 in 2024. The ratio between the two metros is 1.27 on the total but 1.75 on rent and 1.9 on daycare, which is much of the reason the Indian population of Frisco and Alpharetta has grown as it has.

Property tax is inside every rent

A renter pays property tax through the rent. The Tax Foundation’s 2024 county rates show how much sits inside a rent: 1.88% statewide in New Jersey, 1.99% in Middlesex County (Edison) and 2.15% in Mercer (Princeton), against 1.48% in Collin County, Texas (Frisco, Plano), 0.76% in King County, Washington and 0.68% in Santa Clara County, California, where the house prices make up for the low rate. American public schools are assigned by address, and the school district behind a flat carries a premium of $300–800 a month over the next district along, which is the subject of the schools section.

Employer cover is the default

Almost every H-1B and green-card household is insured through an employer. The Kaiser Family Foundation’s 2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey puts the average annual premium at $26,993 for family cover and $9,325 for single cover, of which the worker pays on average $6,850 and $1,440; the average single deductible was $1,886. A family of four in a typical plan therefore spends about $571 a month in premiums plus $1,500–3,000 a year in deductibles, co-pays and the children’s dental and vision, which is the $720 a month in the cost-of-living guide budgets. Ask the recruiter for the benefits summary and compare plans by premium plus deductible, not premium alone. A spouse and children on H-4 are dependants on the plan like any others, and enrolling them within 30 days of arrival avoids waiting for the next open enrolment. Cover starts on day one or on the first of the next month, depending on the employer, so ask for the effective date and buy a short-term policy for the gap if it is longer than a fortnight.

Buying your own cover: the marketplaces

If there is no employer plan, the Affordable Care Act’s marketplaces sell private plans, on HealthCare.gov or on a state’s own site. HealthCare.gov’s open enrolment for 2027 runs from 1 November 2026 to 15 January 2027: enrol or change by 15 December for cover from 1 January, and between 16 December and 15 January for cover from 1 February. Outside that window you can enrol only after a qualifying life event such as moving, losing other cover, marriage or a birth. States that run their own marketplaces set their own dates; the city guides give these for 2027:

Get Covered Illinois and Washington’s Healthplanfinder are the Illinois and Washington equivalents, with dates on their own sites. A federal limit on the length of open enrolment was blocked by a legal challenge, according to the New Jersey Department of Banking and Insurance, so confirm your state’s dates on its page.

What changes in 2027 for people on visas

Two federal changes reach this community. The enhanced premium tax credits that held premiums down expired at the end of 2025, and the city guides report that subsidies are smaller and premiums higher in 2026. And under the July 2025 law known as H.R. 1, from 2027 premium tax credits go only to green-card holders, Cuban and Haitian entrants and migrants from the Compact of Free Association countries, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. Other lawfully present immigrants, including people on work and student visas, can still buy a marketplace plan at full price but get no financial help; Covered California’s fact sheet lists work and student visas among the groups affected, and advises talking to an immigration lawyer before taking financial assistance if a green-card application is planned. Rates are rising too: Covered California announced a preliminary average rise of 9.9% for 2027, and the Boston Globe reported that unsubsidised non-group plans in Massachusetts will cost an average of 12.4% more.

The emergency room, urgent care and the bill

The emergency room is the most expensive door in American healthcare, and the one a newcomer walks through first. Peterson-KFF’s analysis of large-employer claims found an average ER visit of $2,453, with $646 paid by the patient; UnitedHealthcare’s 2025 member data puts the median ER visit at about $2,750 against $195 for urgent care. Uninsured, the bill is the whole figure, discounted 40–60% if you ask for the self-pay rate. The routine is simple: choose a primary-care doctor from the plan’s list in your second week; use the plan’s telehealth service ($0–50) for a fever or rash; use urgent care ($100–250 with insurance) for cuts, sprains and ear infections; and keep the ER for chest pain, breathing trouble, head injuries and anything urgent care turns away. Indian prescriptions are not honoured, so get US scripts for anything long-term. Hospitals run charity-care or financial-assistance programmes for people on low incomes, which the city guides describe: NYC Health + Hospitals and NYC Care in New York, New Jersey’s charity care, Cook County Health’s CareLink in Chicago and Grady’s financial assistance in Atlanta.

Parents visiting on a B-2

Visitors cannot buy marketplace plans or join an employer plan, so visitor medical insurance is the only cover. Broker price lists in 2026 put a 30-day comprehensive policy for a 70-year-old at $203 to $344; buy comprehensive cover with acute onset of pre-existing conditions (blood pressure, diabetes, heart) and a maximum of $250,000 or more, and avoid fixed-benefit plans above 60. A six-month visit for two parents in their late sixties is about $1,800–4,000 of insurance, and a three-night cardiac admission without it can be a $50,000–100,000 bill. Routine check-ups and dental work are not covered, so do those in India before the flight.

Tax is where the US differs most from India and from most other destinations, because it taxes residents on income from everywhere, asks for reports on accounts abroad, and is levied by three layers of government: federal, state and sometimes city. This is a summary; a cross-border tax preparer for the first return is money well spent.

Federal income tax

You are a US tax resident if you hold a green card or pass the substantial presence test (31 days in the current year and 183 weighted days over three years), and you then file Form 1040 on your income from all sources, in the US and in India. A first-year arrival often files a Form 1040-NR or a dual-status return, and students still exempt from the test file Form 8843. Your employer withholds from each payslip against the W-4 you fill in; the W-2 arrives in January; the return is due on 15 April. The IRS’s figures for tax year 2026:

On top come the payroll taxes, called FICA: 6.2% Social Security on earnings up to $184,500 plus 1.45% Medicare on everything, 7.65% in all, matched by the employer. Because there is no totalisation agreement with India, an H-1B worker’s Social Security contributions are not credited back on leaving. F-1 students on OPT who are still nonresident aliens are exempt from Social Security and Medicare tax for their first five calendar years. A 401(k) takes up to $24,500 pre-tax in 2026, and a typical employer match of 3–6% of salary is part of the pay.

State and city income tax

The state you live in changes the arithmetic as much as the salary does. Texas, Florida, Washington, Nevada, Tennessee, Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska and New Hampshire levy no income tax on wages, though Washington taxes capital gains and takes roughly 1.2% of wages for its long-term-care and paid-leave programmes (the cost-of-living guide’s estimate). Illinois taxes at a flat 4.95% and Georgia at a flat 4.99% from 1 January 2026; the top rates are 13.3% in California, 10.9% in New York and 10.75% in New Jersey, and New York City adds its own income tax on top of the state’s. A New Jersey address with a Manhattan job is normal and means two returns. The cost-of-living guide’s take-home chapter works out the net on $90,000, $150,000 and $250,000 in Texas, Washington, California and New Jersey.

Indian accounts: FBAR, Form 8938 and FATCA

Two reports catch many Indian families who have done nothing wrong. The FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is required of any US person whose foreign financial accounts total more than $10,000 at any time in the year; it is filed electronically with FinCEN, not with the IRS, by 15 April, with an automatic extension to 15 October. Form 8938 is attached to the tax return and applies at higher levels: for a single filer living in the US, more than $50,000 at year end or $75,000 at any time (married filing jointly, $100,000 and $150,000). It does not replace the FBAR; some people file both. Every NRE, NRO and FCNR(B) account and every Indian fixed deposit counts at its maximum balance in the year, and so does a parent’s account on which you are a joint holder or have signing authority; being added to your father’s savings account for convenience puts it on your FBAR.

India and the US signed a Model 1 intergovernmental agreement under FATCA, in force since 31 August 2015, by which Indian banks report accounts held by US taxpayers to India’s tax authority for exchange with the IRS. That is why an Indian bank asks for your US taxpayer number and a declaration of your tax residency, and why the two countries can compare the account you declare. Interest is the other trap: NRE interest is exempt in India but taxable in the US, and no Form 1099 arrives, so take the figure from the bank’s interest certificate. NRO interest is taxed in both countries, with the US giving a foreign tax credit on Form 1116, and Indian mutual funds held by a US person are treated as passive foreign investment companies. The sending money guide covers each of these, the $19,000 gift exclusion, Form 3520 for gifts from abroad above $100,000, and the 1% federal tax in force since 1 January 2026 on transfers paid for in cash or by money order.

The India–US tax treaty

The Convention between the United States and India for the avoidance of double taxation was signed at New Delhi on 12 September 1989. Its main effects for a person living here are these:

• Interest arising in one country and paid to a resident of the other may be taxed at the source at no more than 10% of the gross amount if it is paid on a loan by a bank, and 15% in other cases (Article 11); this is the 15% that India’s banks apply to NRO interest when you give them the forms.
• Students and apprentices are exempt on payments from abroad for their maintenance, education or training and get the same exemptions, reliefs or reductions as residents on grants and earnings (Article 21), which practitioners read as letting eligible Indian students on Form 1040-NR claim the standard deduction; check the form’s instructions for the year.
• Professors, teachers and research scholars visiting for no more than two years are exempt on their teaching or research remuneration (Article 22).
• Double taxation is relieved by a foreign tax credit in the country of residence (Article 25).

The treaty does not deal with Social Security tax; the agreement that would, a totalisation agreement, does not exist between the two countries. Nor does it stop a US tax resident reporting Indian income. A treaty-based position that overrides US tax law is disclosed on Form 8833 where the form’s instructions require it, and Indian banks need your US certificate of residency (Form 6166) and Form 10F to give you the 15% rate on NRO interest.

Public schools, and why they are inside the rent

American public schools are free from kindergarten to the end of high school and assigned by the address you live at, which is why an Indian family’s first question about a suburb is its school rating and why a flat in a sought-after district carries a premium of $300–800 a month over the next district along. The alternative is private school at $15,000–45,000 a year per child. Under Plyler v. Doe (1982) a state may not deny a child a free public education because of the child’s immigration status, and the Department of Education’s guidance covers what a district may and may not ask at enrolment; the American Immigration Council reported in August 2026 that lawmakers in eight states had introduced more than 15 bills since January 2025 that challenge parts of the ruling. In practice the district asks for proof of residence, which usually means a lease plus a utility bill in a parent’s name; read the district’s own enrolment page before you sign a lease, because the lease is the key document.

The kindergarten cut-off is the surprise. A child must turn five by 1 September in Texas and most of the Northeast, by 1 October in Georgia, and by 1 September for transitional kindergarten in California, so a child born in October may start a year later than in India. Schools do not teach Hindi or a regional language, and the cost-of-living guide found no full-time CBSE-affiliated school in the United States in October 2026; families who want continuity use online CBSE programmes, and most let the children move to the American curriculum, which they do within a term.

Daycare and after-school care

Before school age the bill is daycare. Child Care Aware of America’s 2024 state table gives the average annual price of full-time centre-based infant care as $22,628 in California, $21,348 in Washington, $20,213 in New Jersey, $19,807 in Illinois, $11,349 in Texas and $11,066 in Georgia, against a 2025 national average of $13,184; the Indian suburbs sit above their state averages, and a Montessori in Fremont or Plainsboro quotes $2,200–2,800 a month in 2026. In-home family daycare is 20–40% cheaper and, in the Indian suburbs, often run by an Indian grandmother, which the local WhatsApp group will know about. Before- and after-school care at the school costs $350–600 a month. Three things soften the bill: a Dependent Care FSA through the employer, which takes $7,500 a year pre-tax from 2026 for a married couple; the federal child and dependent care credit; and, once a child has an SSN, the $2,200 child tax credit.

Weekend schools and language classes

Every Indian suburb runs a Saturday-morning economy of language and culture classes, usually volunteer-taught and costing $200–500 a year. HindiUSA teaches Hindi at 29 locations to more than 4,000 students, SiliconAndhra ManaBadi is the Telugu network with graded courses that count toward high-school language requirements, and the International Tamil Academy, formerly the California Tamil Academy, runs branches in the Bay Area and online. Chinmaya Mission’s Bala Vihar, the temples’ Sunday schools, Gujarati and Marathi samaj classes, dance schools and cricket academies fill the rest of the weekend; budget $150–400 a month per child for two or three of them.

Students: the other school system

The US is also where India sends its students: 363,019 in 2024/25, the largest group for the second year. An I-20 shows $20,000–31,000 a year of living costs at the universities the cost-of-living guide checked; an F-1 student may work up to 20 hours a week on campus in term and off campus only through curricular practical training; OPT follows the degree. The jobs guide sets out OPT, STEM OPT and the traps, including Day 1 CPT, and the cost-of-living guide prices a month for a student.

Becoming a US citizen

The general route is five years as a permanent resident, or three if you are married to and living with a US citizen, and USCIS lets you file up to 90 days before you complete the continuous-residence period. Form N-400 costs $710 online or $760 on paper; a reduced fee of $380 is available on paper with documentation of income below 400% of the federal poverty guidelines, and a fee waiver is requested on Form I-912. These are the fees in force when we checked USCIS’s page on 23 October 2026, last reviewed there on 16 June 2026. A proposed rule issued on 23 June 2026 would set the fee at $1,330 on paper and $1,280 online and end the reduced fee and fee waiver for naturalisation; the comment period closed on 24 August 2026 and the rule was not in force when checked, so read USCIS’s fee schedule (Form G-1055) on the day you file.

The civics test depends on when you file. For applications filed on or after 20 October 2025 the 2025 test applies: the officer asks up to 20 questions from a bank of 128, you need 12 correct, and the officer stops at 12 right answers or 9 wrong ones. Applicants aged 65 or over with 20 years as permanent residents get a 10-question version from a marked list of 20 and need 6. Some answers depend on who holds an office, so study USCIS’s test-updates page close to the interview. English reading, writing and speaking are tested alongside it, and the process ends with an oath ceremony.

India does not allow dual citizenship

Indian law ends Indian citizenship the day you take another country’s, so the oath of allegiance at a USCIS ceremony is also the day you stop being an Indian citizen. Three consequences follow, each covered in the OCI card guide. The Indian passport must be surrendered to the consulate, through VFS, and the surrender certificate is what an OCI application asks for; using or keeping an Indian passport after naturalising carries penalties that the missions apply in dollars. A US citizen of Indian origin who wants to live, work or buy property in India does it on an OCI card, not an Indian passport. And while you hold a green card you are still an Indian citizen, so your passport is renewed in the usual way, as the passport renewal guide describes.

What the OCI card gives and what it does not

The Overseas Citizen of India card is a lifelong, multiple-entry, multi-purpose visa for India for people of Indian origin who hold a foreign passport: naturalised Americans who have surrendered the Indian passport, their US-born children and grandchildren, and foreign spouses after two years of registered marriage. It gives entry for life without a visa, no registration with the police or the Foreigners Regional Registration Office however long you stay, and parity with Non-Resident Indians in most economic, financial and educational matters. It does not give a vote, a seat in the Lok Sabha or a state assembly, a government job or agricultural land, and it is not a citizenship: in India you are a foreigner with privileges. The Ministry of Home Affairs puts cardholders above five million. Anyone who is or was a citizen of Pakistan or Bangladesh, or whose parent, grandparent or great-grandparent was, cannot hold one, and the guide notes that foreign military service is a bar. The e-OCI replaced the printed booklet from July 2026; the OCI card guide has the documents, the dollar fees and the weeks it takes.

Diwali is not a federal holiday, and in most of the country it is a working day that families keep in the evening. Three states have written it into law, in different ways, and one city’s school calendar has followed. The differences matter, because “official holiday” means very little in one state and a good deal in another.

Because Diwali falls on Sunday 8 November 2026, none of these laws changes anyone’s week this year: the celebrations are on the weekends before, and Monday 9 November is the morning of Govardhan Puja and Annakut. In 2027 Diwali is on Friday 29 October, and the laws start to matter. A school district outside these states decides for itself; ask yours when its calendar is published.

At work

Where there is no law, there is federal employment law. Title VII requires an employer to reasonably accommodate an employee’s sincerely held religious practices, and the EEOC’s page lists “schedule changes or leave for religious observances” among the accommodations. The Supreme Court’s decision in Groff v. DeJoy (2023) held that an employer can refuse only if the burden is substantial in the overall context of its business, not merely more than a trivial cost. In practice the sensible course is to ask your manager well ahead, offer a shift swap or a vacation day, and keep the request in writing. Some employers publish a Diwali day or a floating holiday; the offer letter or the benefits summary will say.

Fireworks

Diwali’s fireworks are a state and city matter, and most American cities allow nothing beyond sparklers outside the Fourth of July. Families light diyas and candles at home, and the fireworks belong to the fairground shows, such as the Dussehra–Diwali night at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton, where the Bay Area’s cities do not allow them at home. Check your city’s ordinance before buying anything.

This site has no temples page for the United States, unlike the countries where a single directory covers every house of worship, so this section does not link one. What exists instead is the worship section of each city guide, which names the temples, gurdwaras and Jain centres in that metro area, with addresses and hours where the places publish them. Many run a canteen, language classes and a Sunday school alongside the shrine.

The houses of worship that each city guide names first, as the guides give them in October 2026:

What to know before you go

Each temple sets its own hours and rules, so read its own page for the week you are going; the city guides say where each publishes them. The big festivals change the picture: the BAPS mandirs hold Annakut the morning after Diwali, which in 2026 is Monday 9 November, and the Ganesh Temple’s canteen in Flushing cooks for up to 10,000 people on Diwali itself. The gurdwaras run a langar, the free community meal, and the Sikh community’s calendar in New York includes the Sikh Day Parade in Manhattan in April.

Temples are also where newcomers find the rest of the community, through the language classes and Sunday schools and the associations’ programmes held in their halls. The Indian businesses directory lists Indian businesses across the country, and the groups are where members ask which temple has a Tamil priest or a Marathi Sunday school.

Indian America keeps the festival calendar on the weekends, because almost none of it is a day off. The public events are parades and street fairs, the private ones are in the temples and banquet halls, and the 2026 calendar as the city guides give it looks like this.

Diwali, city by city

The United States keeps the biggest Diwali outside India, and nearly all of it falls on the weekends before the day itself. The Diwali page of this site, last reviewed on 9 October 2026, lists these from the organisers. Two had already been held by 23 October: Hum Sub Diwali in Cary, North Carolina, on 10 October, and the Dussehra–Diwali night at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton on 17 October. Still ahead are Diwali at Times Square in New York on Saturday 24 October, free, ending with the diya-lighting countdown on the One Times Square tower; the San Jose Diwali Carnival on Plaza de César Chávez on 24 October; the Diwali Street Mela on Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia, Los Angeles County, on Sunday 25 October; the Dallas-area melas in McKinney on 24 October and Frisco on 1 November; the Bhangra & Beats Night Market at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco on Friday 13 November, listed as the city’s official Diwali celebration; and Diwali: Festival of Lights at Discovery Green in Houston on Saturday 14 November. On the day itself, Sunday 8 November, the temples hold Lakshmi Puja and families light diyas at home.

Where to find the rest

Two pages carry what is on. The Diwali page for the US collects the 2026 Diwali events by city as organisers confirm them, usually four to six weeks ahead, and the Indian events calendar for the US lists everything posted across the country. Any event date on this page that is not on the Diwali page should be checked with the organiser; tickets, venues and times change, and the city guides date the ones they quote.

Indian newcomers everywhere look for the WhatsApp group first, and in the US there is one for almost everything: the flat in the suburb, the parents of a school, the Telugu or Gujarati samaj, the university batch, the temple’s volunteers. The groups are how the community organises itself, and this guide will not pretend otherwise.

What the groups are good at, and what they are not

They are fast. Ask at ten at night which DMV office books a road test this month or which Iselin doctor speaks Gujarati, and someone answers before eleven. But you need to know somebody to be added; the links in circulation go stale; most groups show your phone number to every member; and answers scroll away, so the same questions about the deposit cap, the school district and the H-1B come round every week. The groups are also where scams start. The pattern is the same as in the housing section: a flat at half the going rate, a deposit before the keys, a “consultancy” that wants a fee to sponsor a visa. The FTC reported fraud losses of $12.5 billion in the US in 2024; the Chicago consulate’s site carries an advisory about spoofed calls; and the sending money guide covers the “digital arrest” calls that claim to be Indian police.

What Namaste Community adds

Namaste Community’s app and website have local groups (moderated and tied to a place), events near you, a directory of Indian businesses and Ask, where members answer questions. You can post under your name or anonymously. The US groups are at /groups/in/usa; the Indian events page for the US lists events across the country, with the Diwali page for the season; and the US directory lists Indian businesses across the country.

Your first week, in practice

1. Open the US groups and join the general one and the one for your city, language or interest. Read before you post: the paperwork answers are usually there already.
2. Go to one event in your first fortnight: an evening at a temple or gurdwara, a language association’s programme, a Diwali mela. It is the fastest way from “the Indian community in the US” as a phrase to three people whose names you know.
3. Ask the question you actually have, and say which state, which visa and which suburb you mean: the deposit, the licence deadline and the school depend on all three.
4. When you have found your landlord, your doctor and your grocer, leave a review or an answer for the next person from Hyderabad, Pune or Ahmedabad.

If the group you need is not listed, such as a parents’ group in Plano or a Bengali group in Edison, ask in the general US group; someone is usually looking for the same thing.

India has nine missions in the United States for passports, OCI cards, visas and attestations, and which one handles your file is fixed by the state you live in, not by the nearest office. The table gives the mission, its address as the city guides print it, and its jurisdiction as the Indian consulates’ own list gives it, which the passport renewal guide follows.

The map was redrawn in the summer of 2025. The San Francisco consulate’s page dates it from 1 August 2025, Houston’s page also says 1 August, and the passport and OCI guides record 15 July 2025, so treat the day as approximate and the jurisdictions as settled. The changes that catch people are that Delaware now files to New York, Colorado to San Francisco, New Mexico to Los Angeles, and Nebraska and the Dakotas to Seattle. A file sent to the wrong consulate is returned, and a Bay Area address and a San Diego one are now two different missions.

The two newer offices

Boston has a consulate and, since March 2026, a VFS centre at 90 Canal Street for attestations and other miscellaneous work; the notice on the New York consulate’s site says that passport, visa and OCI files for the five New England states are processed in New York until Boston’s office is fully established, so a Massachusetts applicant should read that notice on the day. Los Angeles began direct visa and OCI services on 6 April 2026 from a VFS centre at 800 South Figueroa Street. The San Francisco consulate’s page says San Francisco provides only passport services for the Los Angeles jurisdiction until further notice, while an April 2026 news report says Los Angeles now processes passport files too; check the VFS page for your state before posting a passport.

VFS Global and the sub-centres

VFS Global runs the Indian consular application centres: seven in the Embassy and consulate cities, eight more opened on 1 August 2025 in Boston, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Edison, Orlando, Raleigh and San Jose, and one in Los Angeles that opened in December 2025. A new centre is a sub-centre of the mission that holds its state, so a file handed in at Dallas goes to Houston, at Edison or Columbus to New York, at Detroit to Chicago, at Raleigh to Washington, at Orlando to Atlanta and at San Jose to San Francisco. The decision is made at the consulate, and the passport is printed in India. The fees, documents and steps are in the passport renewal guide and the OCI card guide.

Help and safety

For a genuine emergency in the US the number is 911, and each mission publishes an emergency line on its own site for a lost passport, a death or a detention. The Ministry’s MADAD portal is the grievance route when a file has been pending past the published time, and the $3 that is added to consular fees goes to the Indian Community Welfare Fund, which pays for a stranded Indian national’s ticket home. A call that claims to be a consulate, the police or an immigration officer and asks for money is a scam whatever name appears on the screen. The city guides carry the local help lines; the groups carry last month’s experience of each VFS centre.