The only criterion for H1-B should be whether there are qualified Americans to do a certain task or not. If there are no Americans who can modify XML, then its

The only criterion for H1-B should be whether there are qualified Americans to do a certain task or not. If there are no Americans who can modify XML, then its totally fine to invite those who can. If there are plenty of Americans in the job market with deep skills about Distributed Systems, then do not grant visas to immigrants touting those skills. Simple! Also, I won't be surprised if there are interesting challenges at outsourcing firms. But based on my own experience at one of these firms, I also know that folks working on these are pretty well paid, much above the level of H1B minimum wage. So they will still meet the elevated salary requirements.