The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said Thursday that it has received enough applications to claim the 64,300 H-1B visas it has available for the 2007 federal fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

There are an additional 20,000 visas for advanced degrees holders. As of this week, only 5,830 visas had been issued, but the number of applications for the remaining slots is expected to pick up now that students are graduating from college.

This is the earliest the H-1B cap has been reached. The USCIS won't accept new applications until next April.

The cap was set at 65,000 by Congress, but 6,800 visas are set aside for Chile and Singapore under trade agreements. The visas made available to those two countries are called H-1B1, but only 700 were claimed, and the others were added back into the H-1B cap, according to the USCIS.

The H-1B is an intensely controversial program and the arguments for and against it have been firmly drawn. Supporters say the visas are needed to ensure that the U.S. has an ample supply of highly skilled technical professionals. Opponents see it as a means for replacing citizens and permanent residents with lower-cost workers.