Petitions for temporary U.S. skilled worker, or H-1B, visas quickly reached their limit for the third consecutive year, but expanding the program will fail to provide a solution, experts told CNBC on Thursday.

"The problem here is not so much about skilled immigration. It's about a very broken H1 temporary visa program that's exploited to the point where we're really damaging the pay of incumbent workers here," said Jared Bernstein, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in a CNBC "Power Lunch" Interview.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services started accepting fiscal year 2016 H-1B applications at the beginning of April and reached the congressionally mandated cap of 65,000 within a week. Proponents for H1-B expansion have contended that the temporary work visas often go to workers in science, engineering or computer fields, areas the American workforce struggles to fill.