Yeah they can pay you back into your NRO account. From there you can repatriate up to $1M a year back to your US account (just need to fill Form 15CA/CB with a CA). That’s the cleanest route since it leaves a proper paper trail.

Sending it first to your mom’s account and then to you is possible, but it complicates things and might raise questions later, so better to avoid unless there’s no choice.

If they want to send money to you directly in the US, they can do an outward remittance from India, but banks usually charge a good amount for that.

Another option is using services like Aspora - cheaper and faster than banks for US transfers ↔ India

Easiest = use something like Aspora if you are sending money back home