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According to an update from US Citizenship and Immigration Service, the quota of 20,000 H1B visas for those with Master's Degrees or higher was exhausted on January 17, 2006.
Under current law, the annual cap on the H-1B category is 65,000 (down from 195,000 in financial year 2003). Within the quota of 65,000, Congress created an exemption for 20,000 foreign nationals earning advanced degrees from US universities.
Given the high demand for skilled temporary workers in the US, the 65,000 H-1B visas cap was reached even before the start of the Federal Government's fiscal year 2006 (which began on October 1, 2005). This had prompted organisations such as the IT Association of America (ITAA) to demand a significant increase in the number of visas for the current year and future years.
