A provision of the Immigration Act of 1990 set up a "foreign investor visa program," whereby 10,000 green cards would be reserved annually for foreign entrepreneurs who were willing to invest at least $1 million in a business in the U. S. Some 700,000 U. S. visas are issued annually.

• Sadly, the program has been a failure -- with only 59 visas granted in the first year and only 540 last year.

• Observers say the failure was primarily due to bureaucratic inefficiency, muddled regulations, Byzantine paperwork and onerous rules that discouraged those who might otherwise have taken advantage of it.

• Before the Immigration and Naturalization Service can issue a visa, applicants under the program must collect and disclose volumes of financial records and other paperwork, as well as filling out complicated and cryptic forms -- and then wait as long as a year while the INS goes over the data.

• Once they get here, the investors only receive conditional two-year visas and are only rewarded with a permanent visa after they demonstrate that they have invested the $1 million in a new company, actively managed it, hired at least 10 employees, and adhered to a host of other requirements.

Many wealthy investors and entrepreneurs -- such as those fleeing Hong Kong -- have chosen to settle in Canada and other countries, rather than take the risks and be burdened by the rules life in the U. S. entails.

Source: Kenneth Lee, "Let's Sell More U. S. Visas," American Enterprise, March-April 1997.