100% Increase In Indian Students Going To US; But Why Cognizant’s H1B Visa Needs Reduced By 80%?

The number of Indian students preferring to go abroad, especially to the United States of America, has increased twice as much it was ten years ago, as revealed by the officials of the Embassy of the United States.

The Embassy recently celebrated its fifth Student Visa Day on June 12, 2019. The Embassy took this opportunity to announce the launch of an app that will help Indian students obtain information about education in the US.

On the other hand, Cognizant has scaled down the number of H-1B visas that the company used to apply for by as much as 70-80%. The company was among the top ten companies to file for H-1B visas for the Q1 FY-2019.

The number of Indian Students Going to the US Doubled in Last 10 Years

As per the 2018 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange, the number of Indian students staying in the US for educational reasons went up by 5.4% last year to 196,271. It seems Indian students are preferring the educational standards in the US more than any other country.

MaryKay Carlson, Charge d’ Affaires (CDA), Embassy of the USA said, “In 2018, around 196,000 Indian students enrolled in the higher education institutions in the US which is more than double the number of students from a decade ago.”

As per the US Embassy, 17 per cent of the international student population is constituted by Indians.

The Embassy also announced the launch of a new mobile app EducationUSA India, which will help interested students authentic and simplified information about higher education admission processes in the US.

Cognizant Applying For Lesser Visas

At the 40th Nasdaq Investor Conference that was conducted in the US, the CFO of Cognizant, Karen McLoughlin revealed that the company has been applying for 70-80% lesser H-1B visas than it used to.

She said, “Immigration is something that we’ve been living with for years and the noise in the US has been on-going for at least four or five plus years at this point. And we really have shifted the model in the US to be much more local hiring focused.”

McLoughlin admitted that there is a shortage of talent in the countries that the company is functioning in.

Only as much as 50% visas get approved that the New Jersey-based IT giant Cognizant applies for in a year.

Cognizant is in troubled waters as it is, what with the company clocking weakest growth, and employees being asked to leave voluntarily and permanently as well.