As H-1B fee rules stay in flux, Fast Dolphin points to a 54% nearshore cost advantage and a faster path to IT and Engineering talent.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL, UNITED STATES, September 18, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Fast Dolphin, a nearshore IT and Engineering staffing firm serving US companies since 2004, today pointed to two converging pressures on the US technology labor market, a persistent talent shortage and continued uncertainty around H-1B visa costs, as reasons more employers are building nearshore teams in Latin America.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projects about 280,000 average annual job openings in computer and information technology occupations from 2025 through 2035, a gap that has held steady regardless of the shifting rules around foreign talent pipelines. Those rules have been in flux for nearly a year. A September 2025 presidential proclamation introduced a $100,000 fee on certain new H-1B petitions; a federal court vacated the policy in June 2026, an appeals court declined to reinstate it in July, and DHS has since proposed a separate $103,265 fee on H-1B cap-subject petitions through formal rulemaking, according to USCIS's own announcement of the proposed rule, with a public comment period open through September 24, 2026. The underlying proclamation is set to expire by its own terms in September 2026 absent an extension. For employers, the practical result is the same regardless of how the litigation ends: the cost and predictability of hiring through the H-1B program remain in question.

"Whatever happens with this specific fee, the pattern behind it isn't going away," said Carlos Guerrero, Senior Partner at Fast Dolphin. "Companies can't put a hiring plan on hold for a year waiting to see how a court case turns out. Nearshore gives them a way to fill specialized roles now, with people in their time zone, without staking the plan on how one piece of litigation resolves."

Fast Dolphin's newly published Nearshore Cost Advantage Report puts a number on the alternative. Built from 367 senior IT and Engineering placements in Fast Dolphin's own database since 2022, benchmarked against the true, fully loaded cost of equivalent US hires at the same seniority level, the analysis found a weighted average savings of 54% per resource across five Latin American markets, after accounting for the full 56% employer burden behind a typical US salary, including payroll taxes, benefits, paid time off, recruiting, and turnover.

"That gap is what makes nearshore a plan, not a workaround," Guerrero added. "It holds up whether or not a particular visa policy is in effect."

Speed is the other half of the model. Through its temporary staffing and contract-to-hire staffing services, Fast Dolphin delivers a vetted shortlist of IT and Engineering candidates in 24 to 48 hours of receiving a scoping call, drawing on a network of tens of thousands of professionals from across Latin America.

"Clients don't come to us because nearshore is a trend. They come to us because a role has been open too long," said Ramon Osuna, Senior Partner at Fast Dolphin. "We're not asking a client to wait on a search to start from scratch. In most cases we already have qualified people in the pipeline, and we can get a shortlist in front of a hiring manager in a matter of days, not months"

Employers evaluating the cost of a US hire against nearshore alternatives can view the full breakdown, including savings by role and by country, in the report linked above.

About Fast Dolphin:
Founded in 2004, with legal entities in the United States, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, and Canada, Fast Dolphin is a nearshore IT and Engineering staffing partner that connects US companies with vetted bilingual and trilingual professionals from Latin America. Its main services include temporary staffing and direct hire. With 22 years of experience, a network of tens of thousands of professionals from across Latin America, legal entities in five countries, and candidate shortlists delivered in 24 to 48 hours, Fast Dolphin helps US businesses access specialized IT and Engineering talent, including SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, Cloud, Data and AI, and Engineering roles, at a significantly lower cost than US-based hiring, without sacrificing time zone alignment, communication quality, or technical capability.

Daniel Riojas Martinez
Fast Dolphin
+19543763269 ext.
daniel.riojas@fastdolphin.com
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