March 20, 2008 9:49 AM
On April 1a lottery to select hightech and scientific visas will begin. Within five days all the visas for an entire year in this field will be gone. 500,000 people will be in a lottery for 65,000 visas allowing them to come to the U.S. with their education and expertise and work here temporarily. Since congress slashed the number of H1-b visas a couple of years ago in hopes of making the U.S. less competitive on the world market, a lot of the most educated folks in the world have started going to more welcoming places like Canada, England, and Ireland. A more insular America is not one which will readily meet the challenges of emerging global markets.