[himinlomax]

Remind me of a UK national I know who used to work for one of the biggest US corporation in the 90s. He was based in the US and had to come to a trade show in Europe at the time of his work permit renewal. For some reason that's still unclear, it was denied. As he had a rather high level position, the company set their best lawyers on the case. The CEO was even involved and phoned his connections. Still no dice.

He ended up working for one of their European offices. The weird part is that he could still travel freely to the US without visa, so it was not even some security agency interference (and it was before 9/11 anyway.)