Last week, I learned that the US has run out of the EB-5 visa, which is granted to foreign investors who invest $500,000 in a range of development projects in the US, for the first time in the history of this 24-year-old program. Chinese applicants made up more than 80 percent of the 10,000 visas under this program.

For some Chinese who are exploring a possible destination for emigration, the US and Canada are their favorite choices, whereas Australia and New Zealand are also popular possibilities.

One of my friends chose to study in Australia five years ago, with an aim to get permanent residency there.

She had been frustrated about the swinging immigration policy of Australia, but she finally got the chance to stay. She told me that life was difficult there and it was hard to get a decent job and integrate into the local community. "But things will turn good for my children and after my retirement," she said.

The wealthiest citizens in any country are the most free and mobile. The Americans leave their country to avoid huge taxes, the Australians want to make their travels to other countries easier and look for better career opportunities, while their Chinese counterparts leave their country to escape air pollution and tainted food and seek better education for their offspring.

A Hurun report early this year showed that more than 60 percent of the Chinese wealthy have immigrated to other countries or were considering doing so, which was reported in the Fortune magazine. Along with the article was a picture of a Chinese metropolis filled with smog.

It is understandable that people always desire for better lives.

Many people say, "If I were rich, I would immigrate to the US as well."

One cannot blame those who have immigrated for taking Chinese people's money and feeding the Americans.

What's ironic is that economically, those wealthy people become rich by relying on the huge market opportunities under the Chinese system, while psychologically, they are prone to seek shelter under the Western social environment.

The news of the exhaustion of the EB-5 visa has caused quite a stir on China's social network. Some worried if they could not immigrate to the US.

Actually, although the EB-5 program has hit its quota of 10,000 visas for this fiscal year, it will receive new applicants from October again, the beginning of the 2015 fiscal year.

By then, it is perhaps another long battle for the Chinese rich who would like to chase after their American dream.

Yu Wen, a media commentator based in Beijing