According to today's New York Times , it took less than a single day for the federal Citizenship and Immigration Services to reach its limit for 2008.

Until about a month ago, ERE Media was engaged in a search of our own to find a web developer, and whenever I attended Internet meet-ups and networking events here in New York City to try to spot someone for the position, there were always dozens of other companies looking for the exact same person.  The sad truth is that there are just so few skilled developers available here that there are not enough to go around and get everyone's work done.

It could not be more obvious to me that we in the US are shooting ourselves in the foot with our immigration policies by limiting the number of skilled immigrants when we are so clearly in need of their talent.

From the Times:

The federal Citizenship and Immigration Services reached its 2008 limit for skilled-worker visa petitions in a single day and says it will not accept any more, to the dismay of technology companies that rely on the visas to hire foreign employees.

The agency began accepting petitions Monday for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 and said it received about 150,000 applications by midafternoon.

The temporary H-1B visas are for foreign workers with high-technology skills or in specialty occupations. Congress has mandated that the immigration agency limit the visas granted to 65,000, although the cap does not apply to petitions made on behalf of current H-1B holders, and an additional 20,000 visas can be granted to applicants who hold advanced degrees from American academic institutions.

On a more positive note, after months of searching we finally found our star developer.  His name is Joe, and he blogs regularly.  Say hello and welcome him to the ERE community!