Try placing,

print "/usr/adm/best1_default/manager/$_/$vis_year$vis_month$vis_zero$
+vis_day*.vis\n";
[download]

before the test. Is that what you expect it to be? I suspect it appears to die because you get no match, and there is nothing following to indicate life. '*' is an uncommon character to find in a file name, since it conflicts with shell glob. Do you want a glob there, instead of -e?