The H-1B cap has been quickly reached, the U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Service said Tuesday. The agency said it received a “high number” of visa petitions, but did not have a final count.

It will be a week or two before the immigration service can say exactly how many petitions it has received, a spokeswoman said. The filing period began April 1 for the 2016 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

The U.S. issues 85,000 H-1B visa petitions annually under its two caps, with 20,000 set aside for advanced degree graduates of U.S. schools.

The USCIS expected to quickly exceed the cap this year. Last year it received 172,500 petitions for the H-1B visa under the caps. The government uses a computer-generated lottery to distribute the visas once the cap is exceeded.

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