The Cap On H-1B Visas Could Be Reached SoonThe Cap On H-1B Visas Could Be Reached Soon

If you haven't sent in your petitions to hire foreign workers with H-1B visas, you'd better hurry. It looks like U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services may soon start rejecting petitions because it already has hit its cap for fiscal 2008.

Monday was the first day that companies could file petitions for fiscal 2008 H-1B visas, the most common visa for foreign tech workers. The United States will issue 65,000 H-1B visas for fiscal 2008, which starts Oct. 1. The government also will issue another 20,000 H-1B visas to foreign students with advanced degrees from U.S. universities.

The immigration agency began accepting petitions for fiscal 2008 H-1B visas Monday. It will accept more petitions than the allocated spots because not all the petitions will be approved.

However, if the mailman's bag is any indication, the agency may have already reached its total of petitions, says a spokeswoman.

Agency service offices in Vermont and California -- where petitions for H-1B visas are collected -- have reported "significant increases in the amount of mail" they receive, she says. "We've hired extra staff to work in the mailroom and sort through it," she says.

It may take a day or so, but it's possible Citizenship and Immigration Services already has received the maximum number of visa petitions. "Right now, H-1B is still open," she says. "But once we state the final accept date, we'll stop accepting them and petitions will be rejected."

In recent years, the cap on H-1B petitions has been hit shortly after the government started accepting petitions.