I'm in the very lucky position that I didn't need a visa but as I understand it, once you get offered the job, it's pretty much a done deal. Any company offering a foreign pilot a job requiring a 457 visa, has the number of visas they can get, sorted out in advance.

Dom, I've got a couple of options but not in Asia. If living in Australia is where you really want to be, I'm with a very good mob. Training culture aside. So, I'm being very careful about where I would move to.