IBM tells visa and green card holders in its 150,000-people consulting unit to move abroad or leave by year-end; company says: We have opted to discontinue…

IBM is ending US visa and green card sponsorship for most roles in IBM Consulting, its largest division with more than 150,000 employees. For the visa holders in that unit, the choice is now a hard one. They can keep working for IBM from a country outside the US, or they can leave the company by the end of the year. IBM has not said how many people this affects. It has also not said which roles, if any, will still qualify for sponsorship.The details come from a document shared with managers in the division this week. Bloomberg saw the document and reported the move first on Tuesday. IBM later confirmed the decision to Reuters, saying its use of high-skilled visa programmes had been falling for years. The move puts one of America’s oldest tech companies in the middle of the Trump administration’s push against foreign tech hiring. Last month, that push saw Microsoft, Infosys and TCS suspended from a key step in the green card…