Originally Posted by BURflyer
What if you're from a country where the passport is not so popular with other countires? Don't you need a visa?
Originally Posted by etops777
I'm not sure if I understand your question correctly, you need a visa to remain in the United States, if it's for a year or 10 years whatever the occasion is there are special visas.
A greencard isn't really a visa, greencard holders basically have the same rights to work as a US citizen. However when you want to enroll in flight training be it 61 or 121 etc you have to get a background check done, that is accomplished by TSA and the company you work for. TSA relays your info to you and your company and all your company has to do is approve you for work, and state that they are indeed hiring you to fly for them.
So to kind of answer your question (or at least I hope to have) regardless of what country your from you need a visa.
I don't know the answer to the question as I know next to nothing when it comes to visas, but I believe I understand the question. I think etops777 missed the point – here's a scenario – imagine you are a citizen of Patagonia, or worse still, Nomanslandia. You have a green card so that's great – you can live and work in the USA and you can come and go as you please. But you want to go to Mexico? Well, you need a visa. Going to Canada? Visa required too. Going to Brazil? Sorry, you need a visa. Any country you want to go to – you need a visa because you are from an unpopular country. Now how inconvenient can that be?