It is becoming very common, I have seen this several times in the past few months. The funny part is they would have more success if they considered remote development because they would increase the pool of available talent. With tools like Skype and Basecamp it is like having the developer in the next cube. I am still surprised by people crippling their search for talent when all the tools are available to them to support an organization that can go after the talent no mater their location.