Canadian Pilots at CommutAir
 

Hello,

I just spoke with a recruiter at CommutAir and received confirmation that they are sponsoring Canadian pilots with the H1B visa.

(questions copy-pasted from my other thread on AWI subforum)

I'm wondering if there are any Canadians here who have recently been through the process to answer a couple questions:

1) How long did it take to get the visa approved?
2) Do you need to convert to FAA licenses or does the ATP ride get you the license?
3) Projected upgrade times for someone with 0 FAA 121 time?
4) Has anyone gotten a green card through CommutAir? Is it possible? If so, how long does it take?

Thanks!

I don’t know about the rest, but from a previous life I can answer #2. If you met all the ATP requirements you can take and then receive an US ATP check based on a foreign license. This can be combined with your TYPE check. It requires some extra paperwork you can find here.

https://www.faa.gov/licenses_certifi..._verification/

If Commutair expects you to be approved for an H-1B visa as a regional airline pilot this would represent a seismic shift as pilots have generally not been considered eligible for H-1B visas. An H-1B is for a "specialty occupation" that requires a bachelor's degree, and most airlines do not require a bachelor's degree

I don’t know any specifics, but we have at least one pilot here on a sponsored visa, from Australia. Really good guy. He told us that SkyWest and CommutAir are both offering the visas.

Different visa.

Australian pilots are eligible for E-3 visas, as part of a bilateral free trade agreement.

As previously mentioned by c402fr8er Australians are under the E3 visa which is far less stringent but is only available to Australians.

AWI is sponsoring Canadians for the H1B and has already done so for a cohort of Canadian pilots last year. I just talked to one of the recruiters here and they said they are working on a similar program and added my name to a list and will get back to me.

I have a Canadian university degree, so I believe I would qualify for the H1B

I think they are saying the job position has to require a bachelor's degree. Not if you have one or not.

Good luck and hope u get to join the crew.

CommutAir is NOT sponsoring any pilots on the H1-B visa. They only sponsor Australian Pilots on the E3 visa. There is not a program or any list to be added to. I think whoever posted this everywhere did not get all the details and jumped the gun before getting all the details.

I was told that the company is actively working on sponsorship programs and that I will be kept updated.

So you guys are not going to do it? I'm confused.
Is this an official account?

Edit: sorry, I just realized that I implied that CommutAir was handing out H1B's ... I copy pasted the post from another thread on the AWI forum because AWI said they were doing the H1B. I tried to edit the original post but cannot figure out how, my apologies.