In a significant move that follows the Trump administration's intensified scrutiny on visa programs for skilled foreign workers, American tech giant IBM has announced its decision to halt sponsorship for US foreign worker visas and green cards for most roles within its largest division. The announcement was made by a company spokesperson to Reuters on Tuesday.
The affected division, IBM Consulting, which employs over 150,000 of IBM's global workforce of 264,300, has opted to end sponsorship for most roles due to changes in skill availability and client needs. The company noted that its participation in US high-skilled visa programs had been dwindling over the years.
IBM Consulting has seen a decline in its reliance on H-1B visas, which are designed for highly skilled foreign workers. Data from US Citizenship and Immigration Services shows that only 1,611 H-1B petitions were approved for the company during fiscal year 2026.
The Trump administration has been applying pressure on major companies to reduce their highly skilled foreign workforce in the US. The President has claimed that the program is often subject to fraud and takes jobs away from skilled Americans, giving them to immigrants instead. Last year, the administration announced a one-time $100,000 fee for new H-1B petitions and suspended several tech companies from a program that allows H-1B workers to apply for green cards, citing concerns over fraud and job displacement of American workers. Companies such as Adobe and top H-1B employers Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, and Microsoft were among those suspended. The suspensions were announced shortly after President Trump honored Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Nadella, who is India-born, was one of six business leaders recognized by Trump, five of whom were foreign-born US citizens, including Tesla boss Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, and Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who immigrated from Russia as a child.