Originally Posted by
havick
Sounds weird. A buddy of mine just had his E3 renewed about a month ago. Even if they furlough half the regional he’s at he’ll still hang on to his captain slot.
Another one had a new E3 issued just recently for a fire fighting helicopter gig.
I believe it only became a sweeping thing in the last 4 weeks or so via USCIS for guys trying in the future, in layman's terms the airlines submit a labor request to the USCIS and essentially have to prove by renewing Australians they won't be taking a job a US citizen can perform or be disadvantaging locals. It sounds like the USCIS are now rejecting many if not all these requests.
Given the current climate of unemployed airline pilots desperate for work in the US that is going to be a hard sell to make, don't imagine citizens will take it too well when they find out they are being furloughed so a temporary Visa holder can keep their job. He/she might have been lucky at whatever regional they are at to get paperwork done in time as the documents are usually issued up to 6 months before the actual renewal it's self, most probably well before COVID hit.
I'd dare say fire fighting chopper pilot is more specialty gig that doesn't have as many qualified guys as 121 pilots so that wouldn't fall under the same scrutiny.