This study asks how individuals who leave their country for political reasons make decisions about whether they can return home. Current research on diasporas and transnational repression alleges that states suppress and instill fear in their nationals abroad via embassies, cyber surveillance, and by arresting or detaining individuals who decide to return to their home countries. This research suggests that, in addition to such overt methods, transnational repression may also be less direct, more mundane, and more ambiguous. To further build a theory around informal transnational repression and how political exiles make decisions about the ability to repatriate, this paper utilizes in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Egyptian nationals who left their home state following the 2011 uprising and subsequent political backlash. In doing so, it assesses the many factors and circumstances that individuals take into account when making calculations about whether returning home to a repressive state is possible, and considers how states might shape the actions and politics of their nationals abroad without ever having to directly intervene.