US Citizenship and Immigration Services reported the number of petitions for H-1B visas, which are used to bring in highly skilled temporary workers such as IT professionals, rose to 201,011 for the federal fiscal year 2020, up 5.7% from the 190,098 received last year and the first increase after two consecutive years of declines.

Although the number of petitions this year is down from a peak of 236,000 received in 2016, petitions still exceeded the annual cap of 85,000 on available visas within the first week petitions were accepted for the seventh year in a row.

This year’s increase comes amid the government getting tougher on H-1Bs.

Mark Roberts, CEO of the TechServe Alliance, had forecast strong demand H-1B visas this year despite mounting challenges as the federal government makes it more difficult for workers to get such visas, CWS 3.0 reported. The government has also targeted firms that place H-1B professionals at third-party worksites and is looking to restrict some H-1B spouses from getting jobs.