--- title: "Tech Workers on Visas Are Putting Off Buying Cars as IBM Stops Sponsoring" description: "When your immigration status is tied to your employer, every company that drops sponsorship turns into a problem for your household budget" author: "Nate Ledger" published: 2026-11-12T19:30:03Z modified: 2026-11-13T01:28:33Z url: https://rews.cc/a/tech-workers-on-visas-are-putting-off-buying-cars-as-ibm-sto-ee289f language: en tags: ["immigration", "h-1b", "workforce", "policy", "us"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Tech Workers on Visas Are Putting Off Buying Cars as IBM Stops Sponsoring *When your immigration status is tied to your employer, every company that drops sponsorship turns into a problem for your household budget* By Nate Ledger · November 12, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/tech-workers-on-visas-are-putting-off-buying-cars-as-ibm-sto-ee289f ## In brief - IBM is ending US visa and green card sponsorship for most roles in IBM Consulting, its largest division - Affected IBM staff can reportedly work for IBM abroad or leave by year-end, per an internal document cited by Bloomberg - In October the Labor Department suspended Microsoft, Adobe and six IT firms from the PERM green card program; Microsoft disputes the claims - Visa holders told Business Insider they are delaying purchases such as cars and considering moves to Canada or the UK - Some workers are less worried, noting the PERM suspension covers only a handful of companies When Ashok Kumar lost his job in 2019, he was on an H-1B visa, and that meant he had 60 days to find another employer willing to sponsor him. He found one. Now he is a tech lead at a large corporation, and he told [Jacob Zinkula at *Business Insider*](https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-workers-visas-worry-about-futures-immigration-uncertainty-ibm-microsoft-2026-11) that he worries the next search could be harder, because the supply of employers willing to sponsor seems to be shrinking. The thing to understand about American high-skilled immigration is that it runs through employers. An H-1B worker’s right to be in the country is tied to a job, and if the job goes away the clock starts. The usual employer-sponsored path to a green card is something the company has to start for you, and the first step is PERM labor certification, a filing with the Labor Department. So the worker’s whole long-term plan rests on a company’s willingness to file paperwork for them. That makes the company something like the gatekeeper of the worker’s immigration status, and gatekeepers can change their minds. This week IBM changed its mind. Business Insider [reported](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/articles/ibm-ending-immigration-sponsorship-majority-183718183.html) that the company is ending visa and green card sponsorship for most roles in IBM Consulting. That is IBM’s biggest unit: IBM told Reuters, [in a report carried by Business Standard](https://www.business-standard.com/amp/world-news/ibm-ends-us-visa-green-card-sponsorship-for-most-consulting-roles-126111200278_1.html), that it employs more than 150,000 of the company’s 264,300 workers. Here is the company’s explanation: > IBM Consulting participates in U.S. high-skilled visa programs to address skill shortages. That participation has been declining for a number of years and as skill availability and client need have evolved, we have opted to discontinue visa and green card sponsorship for the majority of such roles in IBM Consulting. ![A person carrying a briefcase approaches open gates within a large identification badge as an oversized hand gestures toward the entrance.](https://rews.cc/img/c36db2d1486da2af5396ed666e7a9babd09b6260.webp) Translated: we used to say we couldn’t find these skills here, and we now say we can, or at least that our clients no longer need them badly enough to justify the paperwork. IBM has not said how many people are affected. [According to an internal document cited by Bloomberg](https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ibm-end-h1b-green-card-sponsorship-consulting-1831749), employees who lose sponsorship can either keep working for IBM from another country or leave the company by the end of the year. Which is a fairly blunt way to put the employer-as-gatekeeper point. ## The policy backdrop IBM is not doing this in a vacuum. On October 8, at a White House press conference led by Vice President JD Vance, Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling suspended Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini from the PERM program. “We will not accept any new or process any pending permanent labor certification applications involving these companies,” Sonderling said, [according to coverage of the announcement](https://www.boundless.com/blog/dol-suspends-employers-perm-labor-certification), and no end date was given. The administration said it wanted to stop companies misusing the program to favor foreign workers over Americans. Vance accused Microsoft of laying off thousands of US workers while continuing to sponsor foreign ones; Microsoft disputes the allegations. Immigration lawyers have [pointed to a regulation](https://www.jeelani-law.com/articles/perm-suspension-microsoft-adobe-it-firms), 20 CFR § 656.31(b), that lets the department suspend PERM processing for an employer under investigation for possible fraud or willful misrepresentation. ([Microsoft sponsors more workers than anyone](https://rews.cc/a/u-s-suspends-microsoft-adobe-and-six-it-firms-from-permanent-5c6589), so it was hit hardest.) The administration has also tried to put a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas, though, according to Business Insider, federal courts have blocked it. ![A dark blue padlock holds cream-colored sheets of paper beside a yellow key on a bright blue background.](https://rews.cc/img/fc301685a01288c3dd9d00094b879b46f78c4c71.webp) I think the interesting question is what the rational corporate response to all this looks like. If you are a company and the government signals that heavy use of these programs may get you investigated, suspended or publicly accused at a White House podium, the cheapest compliance strategy is not to use the programs carefully. It is to stop using them. You can’t misuse a program you’ve left. IBM’s statement says its participation was already declining, so it may have been heading this way anyway, but Kumar’s worry is that other companies do the same arithmetic. His employer was not among those suspended, and still the news unsettled him and his friends. “Everyone was worried about their future,” he said. ## Option value, but for cars One Microsoft employee is getting ready for her last attempt at the H-1B lottery. She told Business Insider that she ignored the Instagram reels friends sent her about the PERM suspension until she finally watched one and found out her own employer was on the list. Even if she wins the lottery, the suspension could block the next step toward a green card. “You can do everything right, build a career at a company like Microsoft, and still not feel secure about your future here,” she said. ![A person in a dark suit carrying an orange briefcase climbs a ladder rising from a white sphere against a yellow background.](https://rews.cc/img/e4a7572926bdc8a85177cd575836789bdd6f3216.webp) Another worker, on an F-1 visa with STEM OPT, said he has put off buying a car because he doesn’t know how long he’ll be allowed to stay, and he has floated moving to Canada or the UK. “My friends are indeed panicking and getting restless,” he said. This is textbook economics, and it is also sad. A car is a purchase you make because you expect to be around to drive it. When your time horizon could be cut short by a company memo or a press conference, waiting is the sensible choice. Multiply that across a lot of well-paid people and you get a policy aimed at labor markets that also, a bit, hits car dealerships. Not everyone is alarmed. Some workers pointed out that the PERM suspension covers only a handful of companies. One Big Tech visa holder said he isn’t very worried because he has no long-term immigration plans in the US. Another has stopped paying attention: “It’s exhausting to follow everything so I’m staying away from all of it.” Aman Goyal, a product manager on an H-1B who came to the US in 2023, thought about working abroad after he was laid off last year, then landed a new job in the Seattle area. Visas still worry him when he thinks about the long term, but he wants to make the most of his time here. “I’m definitely interested in continuing to be here, meeting and building my network as much as possible, as well as learning about the next phases of AI as much as possible,” he said. So he is still building a network and learning everything he can, and taking it 60 days at a time if he has to.