"In any case, we will have to wait until October, when everyone assumes the normal practice of issuing visas will resume. If this does not happen, then I think we will have to anticipate more people and companies leaving," Ehmann says.

American Noah Binder was "one of the lucky ones" who was able to get a visa extension until the summer of 2009. The 27-year-old plans to teach English and do environmental work in Beijing, and says he would be glad if the number of foreigners dropped off after August.

"As I work as an English tutor, a mass exodus of foreigners can only help me financially," Binder says.

Many expats who have had to leave because of the new visa policy plan to return after the Games, meaning there could be a wave of returnees in the autumn. Guatemalan architect Frisly Colop-Morales says about half the foreigners he knows have had to leave but adds: "They all will come back in October."

Colop-Morales was among those foreigners for whom the Games provided much of the allure for relocating to China.