U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced on Tuesday it has reached its limit for 2008 skilled-worker visa petitions in a single day and will not accept any more. This has certainly shocked technology companies that rely on the visas to hire foreign employees. The US immigration services received some 150,000 applications for 65,000 H1B visas within the first few hours of opening petitions for the specific visas. The US immigration services has said that it will now use computers to randomly pick visa recipients from the applications received. The mover would mark the first time that a lottery system is being used to pick H1B candidates. However, the decision to not to entertain more applications will definitely affect a lot of employers and deserves immediate government attention. The H-1B visa allows a qualified professional to work for a U.S. employer. However, the government has set a limit or cap on the number of these visas available annually. Under prevailing law, some 65,000 visas are accessible for individuals with bachelor’s degrees or more advanced degrees each fiscal year, and another 20,000 for those with master’s-level degrees from a U.S. institution of higher learning. Every year since 2004, when the cap on H-1B visas was slashed from a record high of 195,000 per year to 65,000, H-1B visas are made available to companies wishing to hire foreign workers with specialized skills. However, the limit does not apply to petitions made on behalf of current H-1B holders or from applicants who hold advanced degrees from U.S. academic institutions. The record-breaking speed of visa depletion is expected to only add fuel to several large technologies and IT companies lobbying to raise the current limit. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions last month, urging the committee be friendlier to foreign high-tech talent. Critics of the current US immigration policies have fiercely condemned the U.S. immigration policy for not being more open to the world’s talented workers, arguing that they are taking themselves out of the competitive race.