The whole process has become amazingly bureaucratic now.
Yes, I agree. Personally, I don't know why anyone would put up with it ... America is far from the only game in town. It has great weather, facilities and prices; but so do Australia, Canada, N.Z., and South Africa. And all of the latter can provide instruction that, on average, is arguably superior to that available in the USA.
Support the Commonwealth! Remember, we came to Britain's aid, voluntarily, in two world wars ... that's a lot more than the Yanks can say.
And it all seems so misdirected. Surely now, anyone even 1% as suspicious as the 911 hijackers would be spotted straight away by any flight school, visa or no visa.
A few other points worth noting:
(1) as mentioned above, there are many places in the world where one can obtain pilot training. Preventing a would-be hijacker from pursuing a PPL in the USA does nothing to stop him from training elsewhere;
(2) the skills learned to obtain a PPL(A), or an IR, or a helicopter rating, etc., are not really necessary to take control of a 767 and fly it into an office tower;
(3) the petty restrictions do nothing whatever to screen out the native-born American psychos (e.g.,
Charles Bishop).
It must be an incredible burden for the flight schools.
I'm sure that it is, but the politicians don't really care about that. It is much more important that they be seen to be "doing something".