Thanks for the information Check Airman. I just looked through Cathay's profile on PCC. You must be a captain with 10+ years with the company to be stationed in one of their outport bases. Sadly, this does not apply to us. But thank you for the guidance.
You are correct, the process itself shouldn't take too long, however, he wants/needs to continue working with his current airline until he actually gets a job offer. This means he can't just take one month off to go to the United States to get everything done during the FAA conversion process. He will have to parcel things out piece-by-piece, all while under the radar of his current employee. This is the issue more than anything else.