IBM is ending visa and green card sponsorship for most roles in IBM Consulting, its largest division, in a move that follows the Trump administration's tightening of the US skilled-worker visa programme used by the technology industry to recruit talent. The company said the unit's use of such programmes had been shrinking for years as skills availability and client demand changed. Affected staff can keep working for IBM outside the US or leave by year-end, according to an internal document.
Bloomberg reported that IBM is stopping immigration sponsorship for some roles in the division. An IBM spokesperson confirmed the company had chosen to discontinue sponsorship for the majority of such positions. Bloomberg, citing the internal document, said it was shared with managers in the affected unit this week. IBM Consulting has more than 150,000 employees, out of a global workforce of about 264,300, according to the company.
Why did IBM end immigration programs?
The decision comes as Washington presses tech firms to hire more US workers. The administration has proposed $100,000 filing fees for most H-1B candidates and changed the annual lottery to favour employers offering the highest salaries, Hindustan Times reported. Last month it accused Microsoft, Adobe and other companies of abusing the visa system and suspended them indefinitely, the newspaper added.
IBM secured 1,611 H-1B approvals in the 2026 fiscal year, which ended September 30, down from 2,045 a year earlier, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services data. Since 2009, IBM has sponsored H-1B workers 27,863 times, making it the 20th-largest sponsor of the visa.
The consulting unit has also lagged commercially, with growth largely flat since 2024. IBM has been trying to reposition itself as a high-growth software company, with acquisitions including Red Hat, HashiCorp and Confluent.
