IBM Ends H-1B and Green Card Sponsorship for Most IBM Consulting Roles

IBM is ending United States visa and green card sponsorship for a majority of roles in IBM Consulting, its largest division, which employs more than 150,000 people. Bloomberg reported the decision on November 10, 2026, and an IBM spokesperson confirmed it to Reuters the same day. According to an internal document shared with managers and seen by Bloomberg, affected workers face a clear choice: continue working with IBM outside the United States, or leave the company by the end of the year — December 31, 2026.

IBM has not disclosed how many workers are affected, and this guide does not estimate that number. What can be measured is IBM’s own sponsorship footprint, and it was already shrinking fast before this announcement: IBM recorded 1,236 LCA records in our dataset in FY2026 through Q3, down 49.8% from 2,460 LCA records in the same period of FY2025. This guide sets out what happened, exactly what consulting staff were told, who the change covers, what the numbers show, and the options an affected worker still has.

What happened

On November 10, 2026, Bloomberg News reported that IBM would discontinue sponsorship for most positions in IBM Consulting, the company’s largest division. Reuters confirmed the story the same day with IBM directly. In a statement reported by Bloomberg, an IBM spokesperson said:

“We have opted to discontinue visa and green card sponsorship for the majority of such roles in IBM Consulting.”

IBM said the reason is that skill availability and client needs have evolved. IBM Consulting has used U.S. high-skilled visa programs to address skill shortages, but the company said its participation in those programs has been declining for years — a claim that matches the Labor Department data set out below. IBM shares fell about 1% on Tuesday morning, November 10, 2026, after the news broke.

Two points in the reporting matter for anyone reading headlines about this decision. First, the change is about sponsorship — IBM will no longer sponsor most consulting roles for U.S. work visas or for employment-based green cards. Second, it is a consulting-division decision, not a company-wide one, as the coverage section below explains.

What IBM told its consulting staff

The detail of what staff face comes from an internal document shared with managers and seen by Bloomberg. According to that document, workers affected by the end of sponsorship have two options:

• Stay with IBM abroad — continue working with IBM from outside the United States, or
• Leave IBM — leave the company by the end of the year, December 31, 2026.

That December 31, 2026 date is the reported last day of employment with IBM for affected workers. The reported year-end company deadline is not automatically each worker’s immigration deadline. Confirm your last day of employment, I-94 expiration and available immigration options individually. A worker’s own immigration deadline depends on their last day of employment, their I-94 expiration and the options available to them. For a worker who wants to stay in the United States in H-1B status, a timely filing by a new sponsoring employer — not an offer letter, and not an approval — is what can protect their status, where the worker is eligible. The options section below works through the timing in detail.

IBM has not publicly disclosed how many consulting workers are affected, which visa categories they hold, or whether any roles are exempt beyond the statement that sponsorship ends for a majority of roles. Until IBM publishes those details, any specific headcount circulating online should be treated as unverified.

Who it covers — and who it does not

• Covered: the change covers a majority of roles in IBM Consulting, IBM’s largest division, which employs more than 150,000 people.
• Both visa and green card sponsorship: it applies to both parts of sponsorship — U.S. work visas such as the H-1B, and green card sponsorship, which normally runs through the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) process.
• Not covered: the announcement covers IBM Consulting only. It does not cover IBM as a whole, and nothing in the Bloomberg or Reuters reporting extends the decision to IBM’s other divisions.
• Not disclosed: IBM has not disclosed the number of affected workers, so no reliable count exists yet.

For workers, the practical reading is narrow and specific: if your role sits inside IBM Consulting and depends on IBM sponsoring your visa or green card, you should plan on the basis that sponsorship may end for your role — and confirm whether your role is covered with IBM’s HR or immigration team, since the announcement covers a majority of roles, not all of them, and IBM has not disclosed which roles are exempt. If your role sits outside IBM Consulting, this announcement, as reported, does not apply to you.

IBM’s H-1B numbers in our dataset

Every figure in this section comes from U.S. Department of Labor Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) disclosure data and is labeled the way the data must be read: these are LCA records in our dataset. An LCA record is a Labor Condition Application record disclosed by the Department of Labor — it is not a count of filings with USCIS, not a count of workers, and not a measure of the H-1B lottery pool. FY2026 figures run through Q3, with decisions through June 30, 2026. Certified-Withdrawn records count as certified. These are IBM-wide LCA records. The disclosure data does not break out IBM Consulting separately, so the figures describe IBM as a whole — they are not a measure of the Consulting division’s workforce or of the number of workers affected by this announcement. The IBM group in our dataset covers three employer names as disclosed: IBM Corporation (1,233 H-1B records in FY2026 through Q3), IBM Global Systems Inc (2), and International Business Machines Corporation (1). Three further IBM records in other visa classes (H-1B1 Singapore, H-1B1 Chile, E-3 Australian) are excluded because this guide covers H-1B only. Each record is a distinct LCA case number; no duplicate case numbers were found in the FY2026 IBM set.

Even before the November announcement, IBM’s sponsorship volume was falling steeply. IBM recorded 1,236 LCA records in our dataset in FY2026 through Q3, of which 1,232 were certified (736 Certified and 496 Certified-Withdrawn) and none were denied — an LCA certification rate of 99.68%. The remaining 4 records were Withdrawn. In the same period of FY2025 (October 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025), IBM recorded 2,460 LCA records. The year-on-year fall in the same period is 49.8%. IBM ranked #28 of all sponsors in our dataset in FY2026 through Q3, ranked by total H-1B LCA records.

Read the table carefully. Volume is falling while pay is rising: the median offered wage across IBM’s LCA records rose from $109,886 in FY2024 to $117,998 in FY2025 and $129,259 in FY2026 through Q3 (exact figure $129,258.50). The average offered wage in FY2026 through Q3 was $140,648. In other words, IBM’s LCA volume was falling while the wages on those records rose, well before it announced the end of sponsorship for most consulting roles. A rising median does not mean the same workers received pay rises — the mix of roles, wage levels and work locations changed as volume fell. Wages are the offered wages as disclosed, annualized in the source data: 1,235 of the 1,236 FY2026 IBM records state annual wages, and the single hourly record does not move the median. The LCA certification rate — the share of LCA records certified by the Department of Labor — stayed close to 100% throughout, so the fall is a fall in IBM’s own LCA volume, not a rise in government refusals at the LCA stage.

Full employer detail, year by year, is on the IBM sponsor page.

Where IBM’s FY2026 LCA records sit

IBM’s records fall under NAICS 54151, Computer Systems Design and Related Services. The largest job titles and work states in FY2026 through Q3 were:

The wage levels attached to IBM’s FY2026 LCA records also shifted up the scale: Level II accounted for 559 records, Level III for 265, and Level IV for 411, with no Level I records and one record with no level shown. That distribution matters under the new wage-weighted lottery described below, because higher wage levels now receive more entries — but it does not change the position for a consulting worker whose sponsor is withdrawing sponsorship altogether.

Why now

IBM gave its own reason — skill availability and client needs have evolved, and its use of high-skilled visa programs had been declining for years. What follows is context and analysis, not IBM’s explanation: three wider policy developments form the backdrop to the decision, and each one added cost or risk to sponsorship in 2026. IBM did not cite these developments as its reasons.

Green card sponsorship was already under pressure

In October 2026, the U.S. Department of Labor suspended five major technology and consulting employers — Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services — from the Permanent Labor Certification (PERM) process, a key step toward employment-based green cards, as Reuters reported. IBM was not among the suspended companies. But the suspensions showed that the green card route itself, not just the H-1B route, is under active enforcement pressure, and IBM’s announcement ends both routes at once for most consulting roles.

The $100,000 H-1B fee is blocked — not in effect

The White House’s one-time $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions, announced in Proclamation 10973 on September 19, 2025, is blocked by court order and is not being collected. It should never be treated as a fee that employers are currently paying. It remains part of the policy uncertainty employers are planning around, but it is not law in effect today.

The current position is tracked on the $100K H-1B fee status page.

The lottery now rewards higher wages

The wage-weighted H-1B lottery final rule (90 FR 60864, published December 29, 2025 and effective February 27, 2026) changed how registrations are weighted: a Level IV wage offer receives four entries, Level III three, Level II two, and Level I one. Sponsorship did not become impossible — IBM’s own FY2026 records skew toward Levels II to IV — but the system now structurally favors the highest-paid roles. That is consistent with — but does not prove — a strategy of sponsoring fewer, more senior positions: wage level is not a direct measure of seniority, and the data alone cannot show IBM’s intent.

What affected workers can do

December 31, 2026 — the reported last day of employment for affected workers — is about seven weeks from the announcement. That is about seven weeks to assess and pursue options, and in H-1B law, filing on time is what counts. The routes below are the ones that exist under the rules as they stand today. This is general information, not legal advice; anyone facing a status deadline should take advice on their own case.

1. Find a new sponsor and transfer

The most direct route is a new employer willing to sponsor. Eligible H-1B workers may begin employment after the new employer properly files a nonfrivolous petition, or on the requested start date, whichever is later (8 CFR 214.2(h)(2)(i)(H); INA §214(n)). Approval is not required first — but eligibility conditions apply: the worker must have been lawfully admitted in H-1B status, the petition must be filed before the authorized period of stay expires, and the worker must not have worked without authorization since their last admission. That makes the filing date, not the approval date, the deadline that matters — and a transfer filed on time can keep an eligible worker in a period of authorized stay and authorized to work for the new employer while the petition is pending, subject to the portability conditions. It is not a guarantee: if the petition is denied, portability authorization ends.

Start from employers that actually sponsor. The VisaTalentUSA sponsor-match finder matches roles against employers with real LCA records in our dataset, and the H-1B transfer tool works through transfer eligibility and timing.

2. Know the 60-day grace period — it still exists

If employment ends before a transfer is filed, the 60-day grace period under 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2) still applies: a worker whose H-1B employment ends early generally has up to 60 consecutive days, or until the end of their authorized validity period, whichever is shorter, to find a new sponsor, change status, or leave — without working during the grace period itself. The grace period is discretionary — DHS may eliminate or shorten it as a matter of discretion — and it is available once per authorized validity period. The Department of Homeland Security has proposed eliminating this grace period (91 FR 57807, docket USCIS-2026-0364), and public comments on that proposal closed on November 10, 2026. Nothing changes until a final rule is published and takes effect, so the grace period is in effect today — but no one should build a plan that assumes it will exist indefinitely.

The day-by-day rules are in the H-1B grace period guide.

3. Consider an I-539 change of status

A change-of-status filing on Form I-539 — for example to B-1/B-2 visitor status — filed before H-1B status ends can support an authorized stay while it is pending, giving a worker more time in the United States to finish a job search or wind up their affairs lawfully. Filing is not approval, and it does not authorize employment. File before the applicable deadline: preparing the paperwork now, even if it is never filed, costs little. A filing made after status ends is a different situation and needs individual legal assessment.

4. Protect your green card place in line

Priority-date retention. A worker with an approved Form I-140 immigrant petition can generally retain that priority date when a later employer files a new I-140 for them (8 CFR 204.5(e)). That retention is often the most valuable asset in a forced move: it preserves years of queue position. The date is lost only in narrow cases — for example if USCIS revokes the approval for fraud or willful misrepresentation, if the labor certification is revoked or invalidated, or if the approval was a material error. An employer withdrawing the petition does not by itself cost the worker the date.

Adjustment portability is separate. If a Form I-485 adjustment application has been pending for 180 days or more, INA §204(j) lets the worker move to a same or similar job with a new employer — by filing Form I-485 Supplement J — without a new PERM or I-140. This only applies once an I-485 is pending. Before that stage, a new employer generally does need to run its own PERM and I-140, with the old priority date retained. Affected workers should confirm whether they have an approved I-140, and get a copy of the approval notice, before their IBM employment ends.

5. Take the IBM relocation option with open eyes

The internal document’s other option — continuing with IBM outside the United States — keeps the job and the employer, and for some workers it will be the right choice. It should be weighed against the transfer route on facts, not by default: leaving the United States ends the current H-1B stay, and returning later would need fresh sponsorship — which, for IBM Consulting roles, is exactly what is being withdrawn.

Will other firms follow?

This guide does not predict what other employers will do, and in the reporting reviewed, no other major employer had publicly announced the same step as of November 11, 2026. What the data does show is direction, not destiny: the wider computer-systems-design sector was already pulling back before IBM’s announcement — LCA records under NAICS 54151 fell 10.9% in the same period, from 146,304 to 130,430 — and IBM’s own fall, at 49.8%, was far steeper than the sector’s. The October 2026 PERM suspensions hit five of the largest technology and consulting sponsors directly. Whether IBM stays an outlier or becomes a template depends on decisions other firms have not yet announced, and on court and rulemaking outcomes — the blocked $100,000 fee and the proposed end of the grace period — that are still unresolved.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is IBM ending H-1B sponsorship completely?

No. IBM is discontinuing visa and green card sponsorship for a majority of roles in IBM Consulting, its largest division. The announcement, as reported by Bloomberg and confirmed by Reuters, covers IBM Consulting only — not IBM as a whole.

What were affected IBM Consulting workers told?

According to an internal document shared with managers and seen by Bloomberg, affected workers can continue working with IBM outside the United States, or they must leave the company by the end of the year, December 31, 2026.

How many IBM workers are affected?

IBM has not disclosed the number of affected workers. No verified count exists, and any specific figure circulating without an IBM source should be treated as unverified.

Why is IBM ending sponsorship for most consulting roles?

IBM said skill availability and client needs have evolved. The company said IBM Consulting used U.S. high-skilled visa programs to address skill shortages, but that its participation in those programs has been declining for years.

Was IBM’s sponsorship already falling before the announcement?

Yes. IBM recorded 1,236 LCA records in our dataset in FY2026 through Q3, down 49.8% from 2,460 LCA records in the same period of FY2025. For the full years, IBM recorded 2,895 LCA records in FY2025 and 3,231 in FY2024. These are LCA records in our dataset, drawn from U.S. Department of Labor disclosure data.

What is IBM’s LCA certification rate?

In FY2026 through Q3, 1,232 of IBM’s 1,236 LCA records in our dataset were certified and none were denied, an LCA certification rate of 99.68%. In FY2025 the LCA certification rate was 99.38%, with 2,877 of 2,895 records certified.

Can an affected worker transfer their H-1B to a new employer?

Yes, if a new employer files for them and the worker is eligible. Under H-1B portability, an eligible worker may begin employment after the new employer properly files a nonfrivolous Form I-129 petition, or on the requested start date, whichever is later — approval is not required first. If employment ends before a transfer is filed, the 60-day grace period under 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2) is still in effect today, although the Department of Homeland Security has proposed eliminating it and comments on that proposal closed on November 10, 2026.

Is the $100,000 H-1B fee part of this?

The one-time $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions, announced in Proclamation 10973 on September 19, 2025, is blocked by court order and is not being collected. IBM did not cite the fee in its stated reasons; it pointed to evolving skill availability and client needs.

Sources

• Bloomberg News (Brody Ford) — IBM to End Immigration Sponsorship for Roles in Biggest Unit (November 10, 2026)
• Reuters — IBM to end visa, green card sponsorship for most roles in its consulting arm (November 10, 2026)
• U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification (OFLC) — Performance Data, LCA disclosure data (FY2024, FY2025 and FY2026 through Q3)
• USCIS — H-1B Specialty Occupations (portability, grace period)
• eCFR — 8 CFR 214.2(h)(2)(i)(H), H-1B portability
• LII / eCFR — 8 CFR 204.5(e), retention of priority date
• Federal Register — wage-weighted H-1B lottery final rule, 90 FR 60864 (December 29, 2025; effective February 27, 2026).

Background referenced in the text: Proclamation 10973 (September 19, 2025) and its current blocked status; DHS proposal to eliminate the 60-day grace period, 91 FR 57807, docket USCIS-2026-0364 (comments closed November 10, 2026); grace period regulation at 8 CFR 214.1(l)(2); Reuters reporting on the October 2026 Department of Labor PERM suspensions.

Data note

All IBM figures in this guide are LCA records in our dataset, drawn from U.S. Department of Labor OFLC disclosure data. FY2026 figures cover FY2026 through Q3, with decisions through June 30, 2026; FY2025 and FY2024 figures are full fiscal years, and the same-period comparison uses October 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025 for FY2025. Certified-Withdrawn records count as certified. An LCA record is not a USCIS filing, not a worker, and not a lottery entry, and no figure in this guide should be read as any of those. Median offered wage for FY2026 is $129,259 (exact $129,258.50); the average offered wage was $140,648. IBM ranked #28 of all sponsors in our dataset in FY2026 through Q3, ranked by total H-1B LCA records. The figures are IBM-wide; the disclosure data does not break out IBM Consulting separately.

Published: November 11, 2026. Status last checked: November 11, 2026. The situation in this guide is moving — IBM may publish further details, and court and rulemaking outcomes can change the rules described here. Confirm deadlines and options on the linked USCIS and Department of Labor pages before filing. Not legal advice — consult an immigration attorney for your case.