A woman with two Masters from Ivy League universities recently told me she was applying to the UK. After six months of submitting job applications and donning suits for job interviews, she had resigned herself to not finding employment in America. A Bangladeshi friend, also the graduate of a prestigious university, is worried sick over whether his firm would sponsor him for a green card once his current visa runs out.

There was a time when a great education and commitment to hard work meant you had as good a chance as anyone at getting ahead in America. Not any more.

In 2004, employees of some of New England's largest companies were stuck overseas for months waiting for visas, or were sent back home immediately after arriving at Logan Airport in Boston, or were simply made to wait months while mysterious background checks delayed their green card applications, according to the Boston Globe newspaper.

Even worse, the fear of being stuck outside America for months, maybe even years, has prompted many foreign employees to indefinitely abandon plans of going home. Since 2001, many South Asians I know have stayed put in America, often missing family weddings, funerals, and births back home.

Though international students have an easier time getting into America, for most it takes a lot more than determination to make it to their universities. An Iranian student who enrolled in an American university after 9/11 said he was finger-printed four times. A student from Chile told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that he had to show proof of owning a house and a car before he was given a student visa, while a Swiss student was made to endure a five-hour wait for a three-minute interview.

The irony is that in the long term. American institutions and firms are getting the short end of this deal. Many prestigious universities utilize tuition fees from foreign students as a major form of funding. But with security restrictions tightening, students from Bangladesh and elsewhere are finding schools on other continents.

Three years after 9/11, Carnegie Mellon saw its international student enrollment drop to a quarter of its usual numbers. Overall in the US, the international student body only increased by one percent as opposed to the pre 9/11 growth rate of six percent.

Where are all the ambitious students from Bangladesh and elsewhere heading? At least some are going to Australia, where universities have seen an 11 percent increase in the enrollment of international students. Many are traveling to the United Kingdom where universities have experienced a 23 percent increase in international students enrolling in higher education.

And with American firms becoming so reluctant to hire foreign nationals, many qualified applicants are opting for the UK, which recently announced the Highly Skilled Immigration Program, promising permanent residency to students with Masters from prestigious universities.

This immigration option was announced in England after surveys revealed that one in four British employers was facing difficulties in finding workers. Other studies reveal that in the next decade alone, Britain is expected to need more than 250,000 people to fill jobs in the Information Technology sector alone.

In America, where the secret for economic success so far has been a diverse workforce drawn from the best and the brightest of the world, job opportunities may soon exceed job applicants -- as they already do in the field of medicine. Every year, America advertises more medical jobs than there are graduates to fill them.

The message for ambitious Bangladeshis with perfect grades is obvious: shift your sights elsewhere. America might be unwelcoming but other countries are standing forth to embrace talent.

The message for America is also pretty clear: this country was once built on the shoulders of hard working immigrants. It might be wise to remember that now and then.

The writer is an NYC-based journalist currently working on a book about Islam in America to be published by Beacon Press in 2008.