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The U.S. government's cap on how many educated immigrants can come and work for companies like Google, Microsoft and Dell continues to spur the economy. Just not ours. But business couldn't be better at the Chilkur Balaji temple on the outskirts of Hyderabad, India, reports the Wall Street Journal. That's where some 100,000 visitors a week flock to pray before Lord Balaji, known as the "Visa God."

They're making the pligrimage because, despite increasing demand from big American tech companies, the U.S. government has kept a cap on the number of educated workers it will allow into the U.S. In the government's 2004 fiscal year, which ends in September, it took 11 months to reach 65,000 H-1B visa applications. Last year, that same quota filled in two months. This year it took a day.

In June, Google went to Congress to complain about the situation. Google exec Laszlo Bock told Congress the company had already lost out on 70 new hires in 2007 due to the restrictions. But so far, their prayers at that altar go unheeded.

Some are likely to note that H-1B workers, in theory, take jobs away from American workers. But in practice, Indian workers seem to get the jobs anyway. It's just a question of where they do the work — here or abroad. Which is better for the local economy, really? Anything that slows the flow of the world's biggest brains to Silicon Valley seems counterproductive in the long run.