IBM Ends Visa Sponsorship for Majority of Roles in Its Largest Unit

IBM is ending visa and green card sponsorship for the majority of roles in IBM Consulting, the unit that houses more than 150,000 of the company's 264,300 employees worldwide. That makes the consulting arm by far the largest piece of the tech giant — and the decision touches the biggest single block of its workforce.

The announcement was first reported by Bloomberg. It lands amid a broader Trump administration crackdown on tech companies' reliance on foreign workers.

What did IBM actually say?

An IBM spokesperson framed the move as the endpoint of a long decline rather than a sudden cut. "IBM Consulting participates in U.S. high-skilled visa programs to address skill shortages," the spokesperson said in a statement. "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."

Note what the statement does not say. IBM gave no headcount for how many sponsored employees will be affected, no timeline beyond the year-end deadline, and no breakdown of which roles retain sponsorship. The word "majority" leaves a minority of roles uncovered — the company did not define the boundary.

What happens to the affected workers?

According to Bloomberg, employees hit by the change face two options: continue working for IBM outside the US, or leave the company by the end of the year. That is a tight window for anyone mid-way through a green card process, though IBM has not said how many people are in that position.

How big is IBM's visa footprint?

Federal records show a steady contraction. IBM had just over 1,600 H-1B petitions approved in fiscal year 2026, down from over 2,000 in FY 2025 and nearly 3,000 in FY 2024. That is a drop of roughly 45% in two years — from nearly 3,000 approvals to about 1,600.

Two caveats attach to those numbers. The records cover IBM as a whole, so they cannot isolate IBM Consulting sponsorships. They also include amended or extended petitions for existing employees, not just new hires.

The company's 2025 annual report put total employment at 264,300 across IBM and its wholly owned subsidiaries, meaning the consulting unit of 150,000-plus accounts for well over half of the global headcount.

Why now?

The policy backdrop has hardened. In September 2025, President Donald Trump introduced a $100,000 fee on some H-1B applicants — a proposal now tied up in the courts. Last month, Vice President JD Vance said the administration was suspending Microsoft from a federal program companies use to sponsor foreign workers for permanent residency. Vance said Microsoft had abused the Permanent Labor Certification process, known as PERM.

IBM's statement makes no reference to political pressure. It attributes the decision entirely to "skill availability and client need" — a business rationale that conveniently aligns with a regulatory environment growing hostile to sponsorship.

What does this signal?

The move signals that even the largest US employers are recalculating the cost and risk of sponsoring foreign talent under the current administration. Whether IBM's rivals follow suit will test whether this is a company-specific retreat or the start of an industry-wide shift.