Oh rustle, you are such a card, you know I couldn't let that one pass, been annoying me all morning.....
'Fraid US immigration has nothing to do with Airmen Certification, but I would agree with you that the US has gone a bit too far now with it's immigration rules. UK immigration are also quite tough if you don't have the correct papers, contrary to what the Daily Mail would have you believe.
And the FAA are equally anal in their application of their rules and regulations. I had a FAA person the other day refuse point blank to accept a US passport as proof of US citizenship. Nothing would convince her otherwise. It took the head inspector at the FSDO 30 minutes finding the correct TSA piece of paper which said they could accept a US passport as proof of US citizenship until they would process the papers. After that the process was smooth and efficient.
So the FAA pen-pushers are no better; it's just that FAA rules and regs are superior in every way to CAA rules and regs, so it not as much of a problem to FAA regulated pilots
Happy holidays
