You called? 61.153 says to get a FAA ATP you must hold a FAA or foreign commercial with an IR. If the airline has an Aircrew Program Designee they could issue an ATP as the pilot's first FAA certificate. There would have to be the normal TSA background check and there would have to be a validation of the foreign license. I'm thinking it's a lot more common in the 142 world than in the 121 world so the APD may not be familiar but it's a fairly straight forward process.