Project Manager at Cognizant — H-1B Wage Level, PERM Record & Green Card Timeline

A Project Manager H-1B offer from Cognizant Technology Solutions is backed by one of the highest-volume LCA files in the country — Cognizant certified 11,140 H-1B labor condition applications in FY2025 (rank #5 of all U.S. sponsors) with a certification rate above 99%. USCIS approved 2,657 of 2,695 H-1B petitions filed in the current fiscal year (98.6%). The bottleneck isn't the H-1B step — it's the PERM-to-green-card wait, which for India-born Project Managers filing EB-2 runs into an unavailable category and EB-3 sits at a 2014 priority date cutoff, meaning realistic wait times are measured in years, not months.

Data Table: Cognizant H-1B & Green Card Snapshot

Metric	Value	Source
H-1B LCAs certified, FY2025	11,140 (rank #5 nationally)	DOL OFLC LCA disclosure via myvisajobs.com aggregation
LCA denied/withdrawn, FY2025	48	DOL OFLC LCA disclosure
H-1B petitions filed / approved (FY2026 YTD)	2,695 filed / 2,657 approved (98.6%) / 38 denied	USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub
H-1B dependent employer status	Yes (≥15% H-1B workforce)	DOL LCA filings
Typical PM wage level mix	Level II–III (IT Project Manager, Project Manager - Us titles common in same-employer filings)	DOL OFLC LCA disclosure, needs_review — PM-specific wage not isolated from company-wide figures
EB-2 cutoff (India / China / RoW)	Unavailable / Sep 1 2021 / Current	DOS Visa Bulletin, August 2026
EB-3 cutoff (India / China / RoW)	Jan 1 2014 / Jan 1 2022 / Sep 1 2024	DOS Visa Bulletin, August 2026
I-140 processing (standard / premium)	2.5–30 months / 15 business days	USCIS egov.uscis.gov processing times
I-485 processing	8.5–38 months	USCIS egov.uscis.gov processing times

Data as of August 2026 · sources: DOL OFLC LCA disclosure data, USCIS H-1B Employer Data Hub, DOS Visa Bulletin, egov.uscis.gov

FAQs

Does Cognizant sponsor H-1B visas for Project Managers? Yes — Cognizant is one of the top 5 H-1B sponsors nationally by LCA volume, and IT Project Manager and Project Manager titles appear regularly among its filings.

What's Cognizant's H-1B approval rate? USCIS approved 98.6% of Cognizant's H-1B petitions in the most recent fiscal year on record, well above the all-industry average for large H-1B-dependent filers.

How long is the green card wait for an Indian-born Project Manager at Cognizant? Under the August 2026 Visa Bulletin, EB-2 is unavailable for India and EB-3's final action date is January 1, 2014 — meaning a worker whose PERM priority date is after 2014 faces a multi-year wait even after I-140 approval.

Does Cognizant file PERM labor certifications for Project Managers? Cognizant's DOL filings show green card labor certification activity tracks its H-1B volume closely, though exact PERM certified/denied counts by job title were not independently isolated in this data pull — treat title-level PERM stats as needs-review.

Is Cognizant H-1B dependent, and does that affect my case? Yes, Cognizant is classified as an H-1B dependent employer, which subjects it to additional attestations under the LCA process but does not change individual petition adjudication standards.

What wage level should I expect on my LCA? Cognizant's company-wide FY2025 LCA data doesn't isolate Project Manager pay in the portion of records reviewed; expect Level II–III based on comparable IT-services PM filings — confirm your specific SOC code and wage level on your own LCA.

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