Disclaimer: I moved to the US from India as a teenager and now I am in my 30s. I visit india often. So I have a few things to share.<p>Moving to US from India should not just be about salary even though a salary of 200K is decent anywhere in the US even an expensive place like SF. But I will give you more things to consider than just salary:<p>1. Health Insurance. This is a huge one in the US. Very expensive if you pay anything out of pocket and you are at your employer's mercy for this. OF course good employers have good plans BUT what if you have to get your own ? Imagine this. Without insurance, a lot of places will give you a HUGE bill even for basic things like X-ray which are commodity in India. Yes there are lot of pluses compared to India but the costs of health in US is a huge factor to consider specially if you will live here for a long time.<p>2. Cultural differences. Another biggie. How open are you and your family (if married) ? Even if you are from an Indian metro (mumbai/delhi etc), the culture in the US is very different. People are a lot more independent and on a general basis, like their privacy. Indian culture is more about sharing. For example little things like salary discussion to religion to more personal things. Ppl here like to be left alone (again i m not generalizing but you get the point).<p>3. Access to human resources or labor. This is another biggie. In india, even if metros, you can hire a nanny real cheap. For like 5000 Rs a month, you can get a decent nanny for kids. That is less than $100 A MONTH!! Here, anything less than a $1000 is extremely unlikely to get you a decent service. That is 10 times more. I am sure this number is even higher in SF (more like 2K?). Want to hire a cook ? forget about it because not happening for $100.<p>So the point is that there are lot of things that Americans do on their own as access to labor is not cheap. Not the case in India. If you are used to having people do work for you in India, you will have to be a multi-millionaire to get the same service in US.<p>And last, think hard about the cultural differnces again. Are you willing to mingle with the local culture ? Are you willing to understand before judging ? Initially, a lot of things/people will seem weird to you but remember, they will think the same about you. Take your time, learn the culture and then try and take the good things out it and ignore the bad stuff. Don't be too one sided in your thoughts.<p>In my honest opinion, unless you are ok with all the points above, 200K in India beats 250K in SF hands down. You are like the top 1% in India and not even top 10% in SF.