diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 004d65d4..55fc6487 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@ Types of changes:
 
 ### Improved / Modified
 
+- Optimized `_visit_generic_gate_operation` in `QasmVisitor` class by using shallow copy instead of deep copy for better performance when processing gate operations. ([#180](https://github.com/qBraid/pyqasm/pull/180))
+
 ### Deprecated
 
 ### Removed
diff --git a/src/pyqasm/visitor.py b/src/pyqasm/visitor.py
index 8435e901..bb24ef47 100644
--- a/src/pyqasm/visitor.py
+++ b/src/pyqasm/visitor.py
@@ -1098,7 +1098,7 @@ def _visit_generic_gate_operation(  # pylint: disable=too-many-branches
         Returns:
             None
         """
-        operation, ctrls = copy.deepcopy(operation), copy.deepcopy(ctrls)
+        operation, ctrls = copy.copy(operation), copy.copy(ctrls)
         negctrls = []
         if ctrls is None:
             ctrls = []