IBM tells visa holders in its 150,000-person consulting arm: move abroad or leave by year-end
IBM is ending visa and green card sponsorship for most IBM Consulting roles, weeks after Washington suspended Microsoft and big Indian outsourcers from a green card program.
IBM will stop sponsoring US work visas and green cards for most jobs in IBM Consulting, its largest division with more than 150,000 consultants. Workers already on sponsored visas can keep working for IBM outside the US or leave the company at the end of the year, according to a document shared with managers and seen by Bloomberg. IBM confirmed the change. It comes weeks after the Trump administration suspended Microsoft and several big Indian outsourcers from a key green card program.
For the people affected, the choice is blunt. Move abroad, or lose the job in about seven weeks. For the White House's allies, it is proof the crackdown on foreign tech hiring is working.
What IBM said, word for word#
IBM did not frame this as a policy fight. "IBM Consulting participates in U.S. high-skilled visa programs to address skill shortages," a spokesperson said, as quoted by Business Insider. "That participation has been declining for a number of years and as skill availability and client need have evolved, we have opted to discontinue visa and green card sponsorship for the majority of such roles in IBM Consulting."
The policy covers "the majority" of roles, not all of them. Other IBM units will still sponsor visas, CNA reported citing Reuters. IBM has not said how many people are affected.
IBM was already sponsoring fewer workers#
The company's own claim that its use of visas has been "declining for a number of years" matches federal data. IBM as a whole had just over 1,600 H-1B petitions approved in fiscal 2026, down from more than 2,000 in fiscal 2025 and nearly 3,000 in fiscal 2024, Business Insider reported from federal records.
Source: Business Insider, citing federal records
Show the numbers
| Fiscal year | Approved petitions |
|---|---|
| FY2024 | 3,000 |
| FY2025 | 2,000 |
| FY2026 | 1,600 |
Those counts include renewals and amendments for existing staff, so they are not a count of new foreign hires. They also cover all of IBM, not just consulting. IBM reported 264,300 employees worldwide in its 2025 annual report.
The pressure from Washington#
The move follows a year of pressure on tech firms that hire foreign workers. In September 2025, President Trump set a $100,000 fee on many new H-1B petitions, a rule now tied up in court, Business Insider noted. The administration has also proposed changing the H-1B lottery to favor employers who pay the most, Quartz reported.
Last month, the government suspended Microsoft, Adobe and several large outsourcers, including Cognizant, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services, from the Permanent Labor Certification process, CNA reported. That process, known as PERM, is a key step toward a green card. Vice President JD Vance said Microsoft had abused it.
The Labor Department's inspector general, Anthony D'Esposito, posted on X soon after the news broke. He wrote that IBM "is pulling back on visa sponsorships" and added, "Funny how the corporate calculus changes when scrutiny shows up." He said his investigators "are working." He did not say IBM is under investigation, and IBM has not been accused of wrongdoing.
Cheers on one side, fear on the other#
The news spread quickly. Prediction market Polymarket posted it as breaking news, and the post drew more than 7,000 likes within hours.
Fox News host Laura Ingraham called it "GOOD NEWS. America First." Her post is typical of how supporters of tighter visa rules see the move: as a win for US workers.
The other side is harder to see on X, because the people most affected are visa holders who may not want to speak publicly. Their main worry is time. A worker on an H-1B visa who loses a job has a limited grace period to find a new sponsor or leave the US. A deadline at the end of December gives little room during the holidays. Earlier this year, IBM staff on the r/IBM forum on Reddit were already asking whether H-1B hiring and renewals had slowed.
Will this help US workers or move work abroad?#
This is the open question, and the evidence so far points both ways. IBM's offer to keep affected staff "outside the US" means some of the work may simply follow them overseas. That is the same pattern seen this week at Qantas, which is moving 850 office jobs to India through Accenture. IBM already runs large delivery centers in India.
Supporters argue that fewer visas will force firms to train and hire US workers. Critics argue that when firms can't bring talent to the US, they send the work to the talent. Both can happen at once. What decides it is whether IBM's US clients will accept more offshore delivery.
Consulting is under pressure too. IBM's consulting revenue was flat at $5.3 billion in the third quarter, up 2% at constant currency, Quartz reported. IBM shares slipped about 1% on Tuesday morning. For a flat business, cutting visa costs and legal risk at the same time may be an easy call.
What to watch#
- How many workers are affected. IBM has not said.
- Whether other consulting firms follow, especially those already hit by the PERM suspension.
- Whether the $100,000 H-1B fee survives in court.
- Whether IBM's US headcount rises, or its offshore headcount does.
For more on the wider job picture, see our roundup of this month's biggest layoffs.
Cite this article
Patrick Karsh. “IBM tells visa holders in its 150,000-person consulting arm: move abroad or leave by year-end.” 567 Business. Published 2026-11-10. https://567business.com/news/ibm-ends-visa-sponsorship-consulting
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