IBM Visa Sponsorship Ends for Most Consulting Roles

NEW DELHI, November 11, 2026 — IBM visa sponsorship for US roles in the company’s The consulting division will end for most positions, alongside a reduction in green card sponsorship for the same group. The decision could narrow the options available to some foreign professionals working in the United States. It is not a company-wide ban on immigration sponsorship, and the number of employees who may be affected has not been disclosed.

IBM confirmed the policy change on November 10. A company spokesperson told Reuters that IBM Consulting had used high-skilled visa programmes to address skill shortages, but participation had declined over several years. As skill availability and client requirements changed, the company decided to discontinue visa and green-card sponsorship for most of the relevant roles. Bloomberg, which first reported the change after reviewing an internal document shared with managers, quoted the company as saying it had “opted to discontinue visa and green card sponsorship for the majority of such roles in IBM Consulting.”

The internal document described by Bloomberg gives affected employees two broad options: continue working for IBM in a role outside the United States or leave the company by the end of 2026. The document does not provide a public list of affected job titles, locations, immigration categories, or exceptions. It also does not state whether the IBM visa sponsorship change applies to employees already in the middle of a petition. IBM has not announced how many workers will be covered, whether every existing sponsorship case is included, or how pending applications will be handled.

IBM Consulting is a large global operation. The company’s website describes it as having more than 150,000 consultants serving clients across more than 175 countries. That figure measures the division’s worldwide workforce; it is not the number of people affected by the US sponsorship decision. The available reporting does not establish how many of those consultants work in the United States, how many hold employer-sponsored visas, or how many are in roles covered by the change.

That distinction matters because the announcement is narrower than some early descriptions of it suggest. IBM has not said that it is ending all H-1B sponsorship across the corporation, that every foreign employee must leave the United States, or that it is laying off 150,000 consultants. The IBM visa sponsorship change concerns the majority of roles in IBM Consulting. It should not be read as a blanket change for every IBM business unit or every employee.

IBM’s explanation also differs from a statement that the decision was imposed by the US government. The administration of President Donald Trump has tightened scrutiny of employer-sponsored immigration, but Reuters reported IBM’s stated rationale as changing skill availability and client needs, alongside a decline in the division’s use of high-skilled visa programs over several years. The company has not publicly attributed the decision to a specific government order.

H-1B status and employment-based permanent residence are separate parts of the US immigration system. An H-1B visa allows an employer to petition for a foreign professional to work temporarily in a qualifying specialty occupation. A green-card process is intended to lead to permanent residence and, for many employer-sponsored cases, includes a labor-certification stage known as PERM before later immigration filings can proceed.

IBM’s statement refers to both visa and green-card sponsorship. That does not, by itself, explain what will happen to every worker already holding H-1B status, to a person whose labor certification is pending, or to an employee with an approved immigrant petition. The public reports do not set out whether existing cases will be continued, paused, withdrawn, or assessed individually. Those are important distinctions: stopping sponsorship for new roles is not the same as automatically cancelling an immigration status already granted by the US government.

The Bloomberg document indicates that workers covered by the change may move to IBM positions outside the United States or leave the company by year-end. It does not say that all affected employees will be transferred, identify the countries where positions may be available, or explain whether a move depends on the availability of a suitable role. Nor does it disclose whether employees can seek a different US-based position within IBM that remains eligible for sponsorship.

IBM has also not published a count of current H-1B employees or green-card applicants in the affected roles. Figures for the company’s overall visa filings cannot be used as a substitute. Federal petition data generally cover the employer as a whole and may include extensions, amendments, and changes of employer; they do not necessarily identify the consulting division or show how many people will lose sponsorship under this particular policy.

The company has not described the change as a redundancy program. Employees may still face a difficult choice if their current US role is no longer eligible for sponsorship and no suitable internal transfer is available, but the reported year-end option should not be converted into a claim that every visa holder has been ordered to leave or that a fixed number of jobs will disappear. The number, job mix, and treatment of existing cases remain open questions.

Bloomberg also reported that IBM Consulting’s growth had been largely flat since 2024. That is relevant background for a division reviewing its operating model, but it is not the reason IBM gave for the sponsorship change. The company cited evolving client needs and skill availability. Neither IBM nor the reporting reviewed for this article linked the decision directly to artificial-intelligence-driven job cuts, so it would be premature to describe it as an AI layoff plan.

The decision is likely to draw attention among Indian technology workers because India has long been the largest country of birth among H-1B beneficiaries. A Congressional Research Service summary of US Citizenship and Immigration Services data found that 72% of approved H-1B petitions in fiscal 2023 were for workers born in India, compared with 12% for workers born in China. That is a historical national figure, not a count of IBM employees, and it does not show what share of the people affected by this policy are Indian nationals.

IBM has a substantial international delivery network, including operations in India, but the company’s announcement does not identify the nationality of affected workers or promise that every person who wants to relocate will be offered an Indian role. The memo’s reference to work outside the United States leaves the destination open. A transfer would depend on the availability of work, the employee’s skills, client requirements, and the immigration rules of the receiving country.

For Indian professionals already living in the United States, the immediate issue is not simply whether IBM continues to sponsor new applicants. It is whether a current job, visa petition, or permanent-residence case remains supported after the policy takes effect. H-1B status is linked to qualifying employment, while the green-card process can take years and may involve several separate stages. A change in an employer’s sponsorship policy can therefore affect people at different points in very different ways.

Under the regulation currently published in the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, certain H-1B workers whose employment ends may receive a discretionary grace period of up to 60 consecutive days, or until the end of their authorized period of stay if that comes sooner. The provision can be used only once during an authorized validity period, and it does not permit work unless the person has separate authorization. The Department of Homeland Security may shorten or eliminate the period in an individual case. The rule is not a guarantee that every worker will have a full 60 days.

That legal distinction is especially important for employees weighing an internal transfer, a move to another US employer, a change of immigration status, or departure from the country. A green-card applicant may face different questions depending on whether a labor-certification application has been filed, whether an immigrant petition has been approved, and whether a priority date is current. IBM has not published case-by-case guidance, so workers should not assume that a general internal memo answers their individual immigration questions.

The wider Indian technology sector will also be watching for any effect on project staffing and the movement of experienced consultants. IBM’s consulting business serves clients in multiple industries, and some projects depend on specialists who work at client sites in the United States. If a worker has to move, a company may be able to reassign the work to another location, but that can involve client approvals, knowledge transfer, security requirements, and scheduling. No client disruption has been confirmed, and the company has not disclosed a project-level impact.

IBM’s announcement comes amid a wider US debate over the use of employment-based visas. In October, the Trump administration suspended Microsoft, Adobe, and several large outsourcing companies, including Cognizant, Infosys, and Tata Consultancy Services, from the Department of Labor’s Permanent Labor Certification process. The administration alleged abuse of the program. Those actions concern government restrictions on particular employers; IBM’s announcement has been presented as a corporate decision, and the reporting does not say IBM was among the companies suspended in that action.

Another proposal could change the position of workers who lose their jobs. In a September 11 Federal Register notice, the Department of Homeland Security proposed removing the regulation that currently provides an up-to-60-day grace period after employment ends for H-1B and several other non-immigrant categories. The deadline for public comments was November 10, 2026. The close of the comment period does not make the proposal law. As of November 11, the current regulation remained in the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations, and a final rule and effective date had not been established in the material reviewed for this report.

The distinction between a proposal and an operative rule is important for workers making decisions now. The existing regulation still provides for a possible grace period, subject to its conditions and government discretion. The DHS proposal, if adopted, would remove that general window; it should not be described as an enacted change. The comment deadline has passed, but the agency would still need to consider the record and take further action before a final rule could alter the regulation.

The administration has also pursued other restrictions and higher costs in the high-skilled immigration system. Those measures form part of the environment in which employers are reviewing staffing plans, but they do not prove why IBM acted. The company says its use of the programmes had been declining for years. Its decision may be shaped by commercial calculations about where skills are available and where clients need work delivered, but the exact internal analysis has not been made public.

For employees, the next useful information will come from IBM’s detailed implementation guidance: which roles are affected, whether current visa and green-card cases will continue, how transfers will be assessed, and what dates apply to each group. For clients and the wider consulting industry, the question is whether the company can move work without losing specialist knowledge or disrupting delivery. For policymakers, the case illustrates how a corporate sponsorship decision can interact with changes to immigration rules, even when the company says its rationale is operational.

Until IBM provides those details, the safest reading is a limited but consequential change: most roles in IBM Consulting that have relied on US visa or green-card sponsorship will no longer receive that support, while the exact number of workers and the treatment of existing cases remain unknown. The company has described relocation outside the United States or departure by year-end as options for affected staff. The IBM visa sponsorship change does not amount to a company-wide ban, a mass layoff figure or a final decision on every employee’s immigration case.