Visa woes: Cognizant to ramp up hiring in US

IT company Cognizant expects to "significantly" ramp up headcount in the US in a bid to woo the Trump administration that has been critical of outsourcing firms for unfairly taking jobs away from American workers.

The US-based firm has over 2.61 lakh employees, with a large number of them based in India.

While the company is hiring more locals, it is also consciously reducing its dependence on H-1B visas. Cognizant expects its visa requirements to go down further going forward.

The US had recently



accused Cognizant, along with its Indian counterparts Infosys and TCS, of unfairly cornering the lion's share of America's H-1B work visas. 

Cognizant President Rajeev Mehta said the company expects to significantly ramp up its US-based workforce by hiring experienced professionals in the open market as well as make more use of university, veteran, and related programmes.

He attributed the shift to be "largely in response to clients' increasing need for co-innovation and co-location".