Scaling Tech Teams Without H-1B – Here’s an Alternative

The recent $100,000 H-1B visa fee and new entry restrictions have left many U.S. companies questioning how to scale their teams without skyrocketing costs or visa uncertainty. But the reality is: you don’t need to slow down innovation. By partnering with trusted technology experts abroad, you can keep projects moving forward with the same quality and compliance standards you expect at home -without the burden of U.S. immigration policies.

From this article you will learn:

• Why the new H-1B visa fees pose a major challenge for U.S. tech companies
• How these changes increase hiring costs, create uncertainty, and risk talent shortages
• Why Poland has become a strong alternative hub for top engineering talent
• How our team can help you scale with dedicated, high-performing engineers in Poland

 

Why H-1B Restrictions Hurt U.S. Companies

 

 

Escalating costs

For any U.S. tech company, hiring top-notch engineers and specialists is hard enough. Now, with an added $100k annual fee per foreign hire, it’s even harder. Under the previous system, entering the H-1B lottery involved only a nominal registration fee, and if selected, a few thousand dollars in filing cost.

This huge spike in cost can add millions of dollars in expenses for companies that rely on international talent, hitting startups and smaller firms particularly hard. In practical terms, hiring one senior developer from abroad could now cost as much as hiring multiple U.S. engineers, straining your budgets dramatically.

 

Planning uncertainty

Planning and predictability have also taken a hit. The sudden policy change and its rollout led to confusion about implementation. The episode underscored how quickly the legal landscape can shift. There’s also a real possibility of court challenges to this fee – experts have questioned its legality, noting that such a hefty charge may exceed what the law allows. For your company, that means months of legal uncertainty: should you proceed with an H-1B hire and hope the fee is overturned, or hold off and risk project delays?

The risk of talent shortages is rising. The U.S. tech industry has long filled its talent gap with H-1B visa holders in specialized fields. In fact, the majority of H-1B professionals come from abroad (over 70% from India alone). If your product roadmap depended on hiring a dozen skilled developers from overseas, those plans are now in jeopardy or vastly more expensive. The new visa barriers could translate into project delays, rising salaries for scarce local talent, and even lost competitive edge if you can’t deploy features fast enough.

 

The Alternative: Tech Partnership with Poland

The good news is that you don’t have to rely on H-1B visas to grow your tech team. There is an alternative path: partnering with skilled tech talent abroad, without relocating them to the U.S. In particular, Poland has emerged as a premier location for tapping high-quality software engineers and IT specialists – without the visa hassles.

Why Poland? Simply put, Poland offers a deep pool of world-class tech talent. It’s one of Europe’s largest technology hubs, producing tens of thousands of IT graduates every year and housing hundreds of thousands of experienced developers. Polish engineers are renowned for their strong fundamentals in computer science, ranking among the top in the world in programming competitions and technical skill assessments (for example, Polish developers consistently place near the top in global coding rankings, like: Polish programmer beats AI). Critically, English proficiency is high and Western business culture is well-understood, so collaboration with U.S. teams is smooth and effective. Many U.S. and global companies – from startups to tech giants – already work with teams in Poland or have R&D centers there, a testament to the quality and reliability of Polish tech professionals.

 

 

Most importantly, working with a tech partner in Poland completely sidesteps the H-1B issue. There are no visa lotteries, no $100k fees, and no immigration paperwork needed when you collaborate with developers based in Poland. You get immediate access to the people you need, operating remotely or in offshore development centers, without waiting months for a visa cap lottery result or dealing with unpredictable policy changes. In the time it would take just to prepare an H-1B petition, you could have a full Polish development team ramped up and working on your project. Geography is no longer a barrier – modern tools and agile methodologies make remote collaboration highly effective. In fact, Poland’s time zone (Central European) overlaps a few hours each day with U.S. business hours, which facilitates real-time communication when needed, and the rest of the work can progress while your U.S. team is offline.

By choosing a tech partnership with Poland, you essentially bring the work to the talent, rather than the talent to your work. This model allows you to continue scaling your software projects and innovating at full speed, without being constrained by U.S. visa quotas or fees. It’s a strategic way to diversify and de-risk your talent strategy in this new era. Instead of putting all your eggs in the H-1B basket, you can build a distributed team that leverages top engineers in Poland working alongside your U.S. staff – achieving the same (or greater) results, with far less regulatory friction.

 

Benefits for U.S. Companies

Choosing a Polish tech partnership brings several concrete benefits for U.S. companies facing the H-1B squeeze:

 

• Rapid access to talent – You can onboard skilled developers quickly without waiting for annual visa lotteries or dealing with lengthy immigration processes. This means your projects get up to speed faster, with the right expertise on hand when you need it. There’s no risk of hitting a hiring freeze due to visa caps; the talent is available on-demand.

 

• Flexible scaling – An external tech partnership allows you to scale your team up or down with agility. Need 5 extra engineers for a critical sprint? No problem. Want to pause or reduce team size after a project? It’s far easier than the complex hiring or layoff procedures tied to full-time visa employees. This elasticity helps you control costs and adapt to changing business needs without long-term commitments or legal hurdles.

 

• Legal security and stability – Working with Polish teams means operating within the stable legal framework of the European Union. Your partnership is governed by robust EU business and IP protection laws, giving you peace of mind about intellectual property rights, data security, and contract enforcement. You won’t be blindsided by sudden immigration policy shifts. The political risk is effectively removed from the equation – your offshore team can work uninterrupted regardless of U.S. visa politics.

 

• Cost-effectiveness – Engaging a Polish development team is often more cost-effective than hiring equivalent talent domestically (even before adding any visa fees). Poland offers competitive labor costs relative to U.S. tech hubs, meaning you can optimize your R&D budget. You’ll incur no $100k visa fees, no relocation expenses, and generally lower salary overhead for the same high caliber of work. In short, you can achieve greater ROI on your engineering spend, all while maintaining top quality standards.

 

 

Together, these benefits make a compelling case that scaling through a Polish tech partnership is a viable and attractive alternative in the face of H-1B restrictions. You can keep innovating and meeting your product goals without compromising on talent or blowing out your budget.

 

How We Help Companies Like Yours

Instead of wondering how to “hire” Polish talent, think of it this way: we don’t provide individual people – we deliver complete solutions. Somco Software is adept at stepping into complex projects and driving them from concept to deployment. When you partner with us, you gain access to a multidisciplinary team that can handle every aspect of development. Our expertise spans several key areas:

 

• MedTech solutions – our flagship domain, where we combine technical excellence with deep knowledge of regulatory requirements.
• Qt & C++ development – leveraging decades of experience with Qt and modern C++ to build high-performance, cross-platform applications and complex GUIs.
• Software architecture – designing robust, scalable system foundations that support long-term product success.
• Cybersecurity – developing embedded systems that remain resilient against evolving threats.
• UI/UX design – creating intuitive, purpose-driven interfaces, especially critical in regulated industries.
• Embedded prototyping – turning concepts into working devices quickly, enabling real-world validation early in the development cycle.

 

Conclusion: Keep Growing Without Borders

H-1B restrictions are a challenge, but they don’t have to limit your growth. By partnering with a Polish technology company like Somco Software, you can bypass immigration hurdles, control costs, and still access the high-level expertise your projects demand.

Let’s talk about how we can support your next product launch, prototype, or long-term technology roadmap.