For Latvians who fled as refugees during the Second World War and built exile communities in the West, nostalgia for Latvia became a defining element of their exile identity. However, Latvia’s regained independence in 1991 introduced a profound crisis: the legal end of exile forced individuals to make a decision—return or stay. The prospect of return was not merely a logistical choice but an existential rupture. Exiles who repatriated confronted a homeland that had changed, as had they. Their exile identity, once shaped by political displacement, was now challenged both by personal expectations and by those in Latvia, for whom they were no longer seen as fully belonging. Those who chose to stay abroad faced another transformation: no longer political exiles, they had to redefine themselves as immigrants in their host countries. In both cases, exile ended, but the psychological and emotional dislocation persisted, demanding a renegotiation of identity. This paper examines these post-exile identity transformations through life story interviews with Latvian exiles, drawing from the Latvian National Oral History Archive. It explores how individuals are narrating their return—or decision not to return—revealing the complexities of belonging, adaptation, and the evolving meaning of home.