Subject: Re: H1-B Visas
Not always.

I personally knew several engineers who did NOT attend US universities, but were brought over by the company to work here. In most cases, they already worked in our facilities overseas, so they knew our systems. Rather than hiring an American, they would bring Thai or Filipinos (mostly) over, predominantly for test. They were good workers, and cheaper (at least initially...I never supervised one, so don't know their pay details). If you transferred laterally, you would get a pay increase within a year to equalize you with your peers (I KNOW that, because that happened to me when I did such a transfer). A lot of them did such transfers, and would therefore get the pay-rise for the new position.