[lhc-]

To be fair, H1Bs are already only supposed to be used in the case where you can't find an American for the job, which already suggests the visa holder should have some extra special talent because they can do a job no American can.

[volkadav]

Supposed to, sure. The majority of them I've worked with have been nothing special, however. They could hack java or perl or whatever with varying degrees of ability, but none of them have been so extraordinary that I can't imagine finding an equivalently good US citizen. It seems like the truly extraordinary talent would be here on an E or O visa anyway, not H1-B.

[sveiss]

That's not a general requirement for H-1B. (It is a requirement for EB-2, which is the immigration category for a permanent worker with a degree, versus a temporary H-1B worker).

For "H-1B dependent employers and willful violator employers", there is a requirement to "not displace any similarly employed U.S. worker" and to "recruit U.S. workers for the job for which the alien worker is sought, at wages at least equal to those offered to the H-1B worker". That doesn't apply to normal H-1B applications.

(From http://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/elg/h1b.htm .)