Clever, rich or both—almost every country in the world has some sort of programme to attract desirable migrants. The only exceptions are 'weird places like Bhutan' says Christian Kalin of Henley & Partners, which specializes in fixing visas and passports for globe-trotters. Competition is fierce and, as with most things, that lowers the price and increases choice. Britain has two programmes, one for the rich—who have to invest ￡750,000($1.36m) in actively traded securities—and one, much larger, for talented foreigners. Both have worked well. Unlike some other countries, Britain does not make applicants find a job first: with good qualifications, they can just turn up and look for work. That helps keep Britain's economy flexible and competitive. But now a bureaucratic snag is threatening the scheme. The problem comes with anyone wanting to convert his visa into 'indefinite leave to remain' (Britain's equivalent of America's Green Card). This normally requires four years' continuous residence in Britain. After a further year, it normally leads to British citizenship. The law defines continuous residence sensibly. Business trips and holidays don't count, if the applicant's main home is in Britain. As a rule of thumb, an average of 90 days abroad was allowed each year. But unpublished guidelines seen by The Economist are tougher: they say that 'none of the absences abroad should be of more than three months, and they must not amount to more than six months in all.' Over the four years needed to quality, that averages only six weeks a year. For many jet-setters, this restriction is a career-buster. Six weeks abroad barely covers holidays, let alone business travel. Alexei Sidney, a Russian consultant, has to turn down important jobs because he cannot afford any more days abroad. If applicants travel 'too much', their children risk losing the right to remain in Britain. The Home Office insists that the rules have not changed since 2001. That would confirm Mr. Gherson's suspicion that the new policy has come in by accident, probably as a result of zeal or carelessness by mid-ranking officials. Their attitude is at odds with the stance of the government, which has been trying for years to make the system more user-friendly for the world's elite. It even moved processing of business residency cases from a huge office in Croydon, notorious for its slowness and hostility to would-be immigrants, to a new outfit in Sheffield. But lawyers such as Mr. Kalin are in no doubt of the risk Britain is running. America, he says, is already losing out in the global talent market because of its 'painful and humiliating' immigration procedures. If Britain's rules stay tight, he says, foreigners will go elsewhere. Likely beneficiaries are Ireland and Austria, European Union countries whose residency visas and passports confer the same convenience as British ones, with less hassle. According to Christian Kalin, the immigration policy in Bhutan