IBM ends most US visa sponsorship in consulting division

IBM is ending visa and Green Card sponsorship for most consulting roles as the administration proposes a $100,000 H-1B fee and suspends several firms from PERM.

What happened

IBM is ending US visa and Green Card sponsorship for most positions in its consulting division ¹. A company spokesperson told Reuters on Tuesday that the consultancy unit had opted to end sponsorship for most roles, reported only by Al Jazeera ².

The change comes as the administration proposed a $100,000 fee for certain new H-1B petitions ³. The administration also suspended Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services from the PERM programme last month ⁴.

What is confirmed

Three points are established across the reporting. IBM is ending US visa and Green Card sponsorship for most positions in its consulting division ¹. The administration proposed a $100,000 fee for certain new H-1B petitions ³. And the administration suspended Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services from the PERM programme last month ⁴.

All three are reported by both The Times of India and Al Jazeera ¹³⁴.

Where the accounts differ

The two outlets frame the decision differently. The Times of India centres the effect on foreign workers, including Indian professionals, employed by the technology company ¹. Al Jazeera reports the company's own explanation, attributing to IBM the statement that its participation in US high-skilled visa programmes had been declining for years and that the decision came as skill availability and client needs evolved, reported only by Al Jazeera ⁵.

The Times of India, for its part, attributes the decision to skill availability in the US, meaning the company does not need to bring in foreign skilled workers, reported only by The Times of India ⁶. It also reports that the decision does not amount to a company-wide end to immigration sponsorship, reported only by The Times of India ⁷.

On the political reaction, The Times of India reports that Labor Department Inspector General Anthony D'Esposito called the announcement a reaction to the administration's crackdown on visa and Green Card abuse, reported only by The Times of India ⁸. No denial of these accounts appears in the ledger.

What is not known yet

Several details rest on a single outlet. Al Jazeera reports that only 1,611 H-1B petitions were approved for IBM in fiscal year 2026, citing US Citizenship and Immigration Services data ⁹. It reports that IBM Consulting employs more than 150,000 of IBM's 264,300-strong global workforce ¹⁰. It reports that the administration said in October it was suspending several tech companies from a programme allowing H-1B workers to apply for green cards ¹¹.

The Times of India reports that IBM employees on H-1B visas who want to stay in the US will have to find a new employer ¹². It reports that affected employees can leave the US and keep working for IBM abroad or leave the company at the end of the year ¹³¹⁴. It reports that the administration accused the suspended companies of abusing the US worker visa system and suspended them indefinitely from PERM ¹⁵.

Open questions the ledger leaves: how many roles are affected, and whether the proposed fee takes effect.

Why it matters

The decision lands alongside confirmed policy moves: a proposed $100,000 fee for certain new H-1B petitions ³ and the suspension of five named companies from PERM ⁴. This suggests the sponsorship landscape for consulting firms is shifting on both the corporate and government side.

If the reported workforce figures hold, the consulting division is a large share of IBM's global staff, which suggests the change could touch a broad pool of employees ¹⁰. Analysis: the competing explanations — skill availability in the US ⁶ versus a reaction to enforcement ⁸ — are both single-source and cannot be resolved from the ledger.

Opinion

Faultline's view

the coverage splits along familiar lines. The Times of India leads with the workers and with a Labor Department inspector general who frames IBM's move as a reaction to an enforcement crackdown, while Al Jazeera gives space to IBM's own account that its visa participation had been declining for years as skill availability and client needs evolved. Both explanations are single-source and neither should be treated as settled. What is confirmed is narrower: IBM is ending most consulting sponsorship, a $100,000 H-1B fee has been proposed, and five named companies were suspended from PERM. Western framing tends to present enforcement as fraud control; the ledger offers no evidence beyond the administration's own stated rationale. Readers should weigh the corporate explanation and the political one with equal caution until more is on the record.

This section is Faultline’s opinion, argued only from the receipts above. It is not part of the factual record and cites nothing new.