IBM Ends Most Visa and Green Card Sponsorship in Its Consulting Arm as Washington Presses Tech to Hire at Home

The long fight over high-skilled foreign workers has mostly played out in agency rulebooks and federal courtrooms. This week it reached IBM's organization chart. The company is ending visa and green card sponsorship for most jobs in IBM Consulting, its largest business, according to a report first published by Bloomberg on Tuesday and confirmed by the company to Business Insider ^[1][2].

An IBM spokesperson said the consulting unit had relied on U.S. high-skilled visa programs to cover skill shortages, but that its participation "has been declining for a number of years," Business Insider reported ^[1]. As skill availability and client needs shifted, the spokesperson said, IBM chose to stop sponsoring the majority of those consulting roles ^[1]. The company gave Reuters the same explanation, People Matters reported ^[3].

In one sense the move is narrow. It covers a single division, not the whole company, and IBM has not announced a companywide retreat from sponsorship, People Matters noted ^[3]. But that division is enormous. IBM's website lists more than 150,000 consultants in the unit, and the company's 2025 annual report counted 264,300 employees across IBM and its wholly owned subsidiaries, according to Business Insider ^[1].

What Affected Workers Were Told

The practical details came from an internal document shared with managers this week and reviewed by Bloomberg. It said affected employees may either keep working for IBM from outside the United States or leave the company at the end of the year ^[2]. IBM shares dipped about 1 percent Tuesday morning, Bloomberg said ^[2].

Newsweek reported that IBM is ending H-1B filings as well as PERM applications for consulting staff ^[4]. PERM, the labor certification that opens the most common employer-sponsored path to a green card, generally requires a company to show, usually by advertising the job, that no American worker can fill it, Newsweek explained ^[4].

Important questions remain open. IBM has not said how many people are affected or spelled out which roles will still qualify for sponsorship, People Matters reported, and the outlet cautioned that nothing announced so far shows that existing H-1B visas held by IBM workers have been canceled; the effect will depend on each employee's circumstances ^[3]. Newsweek asked IBM what happens to current H-1B holders who can no longer pursue a green card through the company; its report carried no answer ^[4].

The corporate backdrop matters, too. IBM has spent years recasting itself as a software company through acquisitions such as Red Hat, HashiCorp and Confluent, while consulting growth has been largely flat since 2024, Bloomberg reported ^[2].

The Numbers Behind the Decision

IBM's claim that it has been leaning less on visas is borne out by public records. Federal data show the company 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, cautioning that those totals cover all of IBM and can include extensions or amendments for current employees rather than new hires ^[1]. Labor Department data show IBM applied for more than 1,100 H-1B visas in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, according to Newsweek ^[4].

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That is modest by Big Tech standards. Amazon applied for more than 13,715 visas through the third quarter of fiscal 2026, roughly 11 times IBM's figure, while Apple, Meta and Microsoft each sought about four times as many, Newsweek reported ^[4].

The program as a whole is shrinking and changing shape. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said properly submitted registrations for the H-1B lottery fell from 343,981 for fiscal 2026 to 211,600 for fiscal 2027, a 38.5 percent decline, Newsweek reported in May ^[5]. The winners looked different as well: 71.5 percent of those selected held a U.S. master's degree or higher, up from 57 percent the year before, and 17.7 percent of approvals landed in the lowest wage category ^[5]. USCIS declared on X that "the days of abusing the program with mass, low-wage registrations are over" ^[5].

How Washington Changed the Math

Since President Trump returned to the White House, his administration has pressed technology companies to train and hire Americans and has worked to make H-1B visas harder to use, Bloomberg reported ^[2]. Three tools stand out.

The first is cost. On Sept. 19, 2025, the president issued a proclamation requiring an additional $100,000 payment with certain H-1B petitions for workers processed through consulates abroad, SHRM reported ^[6]. Three lawsuits followed, one of them brought by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ^[6]. A federal court in Massachusetts vacated the requirement on June 8, reasoning that it functioned as a tax and violated the Administrative Procedure Act, and on July 24 the First Circuit Court of Appeals declined the government's request to pause that ruling, leaving USCIS unable to collect the fee while the appeal proceeds ^[6]. A federal court in the District of Columbia had earlier upheld the proclamation, a split that attorneys quoted by SHRM said could send the question to the Supreme Court ^[6]. Business Insider said this week that the fee remains tied up in court ^[1].

The second tool is the lottery itself. The administration rewrote the annual selection to give priority to employers offering the highest salaries, Bloomberg reported ^[2]. Connor O'Brien of the Institute for Progress said government data suggest the new weighted lottery has modestly shifted visas toward higher-skilled applicants, according to Newsweek ^[5].

The third tool, and the one closest in time to IBM's announcement, targets green cards. On Oct. 8, Vice President JD Vance announced that Microsoft and several other major firms, Adobe among them, would have their access to the PERM program suspended over alleged fraud, Newsweek reported ^[4]. Bloomberg said roughly half a dozen companies beyond Microsoft and Adobe were suspended indefinitely ^[2]. Vance's message to employers was direct: "we want you to employ American workers" ^[4]. Newsweek noted that the Justice Department has also settled with Instacart and OpenAI over alleged PERM abuse in job advertising ^[4].

IBM has not said the crackdown drove its decision, People Matters noted ^[3], and Newsweek reported that the administration had not commented publicly on IBM in particular ^[4]. The Labor Department's inspector general, Anthony D'Esposito, was less reserved. "Funny how the corporate calculus changes when scrutiny shows up," he wrote on X, adding that companies whose business models depended on limited oversight ought to rethink them, People Matters reported ^[3].

A Debate With Real Stakes on Both Sides

For advocates of American workers, the core complaint is familiar. As Newsweek summarized it, technology companies have laid off thousands of workers while continuing to apply for foreign-worker visas ^[4]. Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies called the recent changes an improvement but argued that the real answer is to abolish the H-1B program altogether, Newsweek reported, and some lawmakers are pursuing legislation to do just that ^[5].

Business groups and reform-minded analysts see it differently. The Chamber of Commerce is among the plaintiffs that sued over the $100,000 fee ^[6]. O'Brien has pressed for a different fix, contending that ranking applicants by salary instead of drawing lots would dramatically raise the average pay of visa holders ^[5]. And the human stakes are real: IBM's decision raises hard questions for foreign professionals, including Indian technology workers, who depend on employer sponsorship to keep working in the United States and to seek permanent residency, People Matters observed ^[3].

What Comes Next

For IBM's affected consultants, the clock is short. The internal guidance points to the end of the year as the moment to either relocate abroad with the company or leave it ^[2].

In Washington, the $100,000 fee could come back if a higher court grants the government a stay, the government prevails on appeal, or Congress authorizes such a charge, SHRM reported ^[6]. And the next H-1B registration window is expected early in 2027, Newsweek reported, which will show whether the tilt toward higher wages and advanced degrees holds ^[5].

A high-skilled visa was meant to bring in talent America lacks, not to supply a cheaper substitute for talent America already has. If IBM can now staff most of its consulting work with Americans, that is the system working as intended, and it honors the old biblical conviction that the laborer is worthy of his wages. A nation that means to lead in technology should keep its door open to the truly exceptional, and this year's lottery results, with a larger share of advanced-degree holders, suggest that excellence can be rewarded without abandoning American workers ^[5]. Fairness runs both ways, though. The professionals caught in this shift came here lawfully, and IBM owes them clear answers and a decent runway. Putting American workers first and treating guests honorably are not rival values. Wise policy, and a wise company, can do both.