The US has a shortage of skilled workers in STEM fields and congress must raise the cap on H-1B visas, Lisa Malloy, Intel’s director of policy communications and government relations, wrote in a blog post last week.

“While only about 6% of our US workforce is here on an H-1B visa, these individuals apply their specialized skills to the success of Intel’s US operations,” Malloy wrote. “Intel alone has more than 1,000 job openings for engineers in the United States. The need for high-skilled immigration reform is clear. The United States has a high-skilled workforce shortage in the STEM fields critical to innovation: science, technology, engineering and mathematics.”

H-1B visas go to highly skilled temporary foreign workers in fields such as IT. The number of visas are capped at 65,000 plus 20,000 more for workers with a US master’s degree or higher. The caps were reached within one week last year, and the government used a lottery to determine who would receive an H-1B. The cap is expected to be quickly exceeded again this year.

“Increasing the H-1B visa cap will help America’s high-tech companies recruit the talent they need to continue the relentless pace of innovation that sustains our national competitiveness, drives economic growth and creates jobs in the process,” Malloy wrote.