Originally Posted by dojetdriver

You said that you are not complaining, but you stated that the immigration here is a nightmare. Well, do you know of any western, modern, industrialized nations where the immigration process is easy? Where you can just show up and they dole out right to abode and right to work without having to go through a "nightmare" process? I know, there are SOME exceptions being made in certain parts of the world for certain types of labor. And there are pilots that get it, but even then, they have to be pretty qualified and filling a need that can't be filled with nationals. But it's not the norm. Do you think it would be easy for an American to go to any other country un sponsored and get a flying job? Much less one without much experience?

On another note, maybe it's aviation urban legend, don't know.

But wasn't there a case post 9/11 where a regional was sponsoring some people, and upon further investigation it was discovered that their paperwork was fraudulent? And that pretty much put the nix on airlines sponsoring foreign pilots. Too much liability, regardless of what country they came from.