A new group of refugees is crossing the U.S. border, seeking asylum from the policies of ... the United States.

Dozens of skilled workers who can't get U.S. work visas will soon be headed to Vancouver, Canada, filling vacancies at a Microsoft Corp. research center that the software giant opened this week to accommodate them. In a press release announcing the decision, Microsoft said the decision to open the center in Canada "allows the company to recruit and retain highly skilled people affected by immigration issues in the U.S."

By the end of the year, the Microsoft Vancouver Development Centre is expected to employ more than 300 people. Of those, Microsoft spokeswoman Megan Manazir says a vast majority will be foreign nationals with specialized skills who couldn't get U.S. work visas.

Jenna Adorno, a Microsoft technical recruiter, writes in her blog that she has been inundated with e-mails from new recruits, with questions on everything from Canadian pet immunization rules to ways of getting a discount on a Canadian bus pass.

"The good news is, that I am now emerging from the bottom of my e-mail and I have nearly every SDET (Software Design Engineer in Test) and SDE (Software Development Engineer) who was impacted by the H1B visa cap placed in a job in Vancouver," she writes.

Though Microsoft has five similar development centers, including two in the United States, it doesn't take an economist to realize that the deliberate move to Canada to end-around the U.S. visa hurdle signals a trend that could have serious implications for the U.S. economy.

RULES ARE RULES

Congress authorizes the federal government to issue a maximum of 65,000 new H1B visas -- earmarked for skilled workers -- per fiscal year.

The cap is hailed by groups such as the tech-savvy Programmers Guild, which says it protects American jobs and innovations. Those against the visa cap, including Microsoft and a host of Silicon Valley tech companies, say that the limit is a pittance compared to the number needed to fill specialized jobs.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates told the Senate in March that he'd like to see the number increase to 300,000.

The visa reform movement says immigrant innovation was highlighted by a report last month which found that foreign nationals are responsible for up to one in four of international patent applications filed in the U.S. The report, a third in a series by researchers at Harvard, Duke and New York universities, found that the U.S. could face chronic innovation problems unless the visa situation is resolved.

The chief coordinator of the study, Vivek Wadhwa, a Harvard Law School fellow, says that the U.S. is denying itself an economic bargain -- access to the brainpower of tens of thousands of creative young people whose education was paid for elsewhere.

"Look at the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on educating U.S. workers, from their first days in school right through grad school," Wadhwa says. "The US can hire young people just after they are educated by another country and ready to pay taxes. The US is getting a massive savings and it is throwing it away."

THE RED-TAPED

Surendra Lingareddy, an expert in semiconductors and security systems, moved from India to study in the U.S., and has been battling both the visa and green card system ever since. A job switch for better pay has put him at the back of the waiting line for visas and permanent residency.

"Rather than let the system ride me, I felt it was good to pursue opportunities that came along the way," he says of his decision.

The most frustrating detail is not being able to use his entrepreneurial skills -- because he didn't have a visa to set up his own company. So for now, he languishes in the visa system, hoping one day to be granted permanent residency.

Leigh Plimmer, a chartered accountant, moved from South Africa to Atlanta in 2000 and is on a H1B visa. He, too, feels frustrated because he can't change jobs.

"My career is stagnating," he says bluntly.

And because his wife is on a dependent visa, she's unable to work. "Her job is to sit at home; our temporary status has not allowed her to do anything," he says.

LOVE IT AND LEAVE IT

The issue of security still hangs over the visa question in the U.S. After all, some of the Sept. 11 hijackers were educated men with college degrees who could've qualified as skilled workers.

What of the argument that, just maybe, one in a million of those visa applicants is the next Mohammed Atta?

"What is that one in a million is the next Albert Einstein?" says Vivek Wadhwa -- pointing out that the world's most celebrated physicist might not have been allowed to stay in the U.S. under the current system.

"The U.S. benefits enormously, both financially and culturally, from foreign workers. ... The vast majority of immigrants love the United States and want to be part of it. That is the greatest security America has ever had."

asap contributor Sean O'Driscoll is based in New York, where he writes for the Irish Times.