Saw this in depth thread and thought Id throw in my 10 cents.
I recently travelled to Denver, CO for a type rating. Of course, thought I needed a visa. I am a British Citizen. Got in touch with the US consulate in Dubai who explained to me that my course was VOCATIONAL and could not issue me with a visa, even if I wanted one. The consulate could only issue a visa if my course was a prolonged course of study, for example if I were to be doing initial flight training. The fact that I was just going accross for a couple of weeks to add a rating meant the need for a visa was waved.
Not being convinced I contacted the TSA, from whom I needed to get approval from anyway in order to train. They also explained that my course was vocational and that I could enter on the visa wavier program. At the same time I started my approval with the TSA for my course.
STILL not convinced, I contacted the Department of Homeland Security who also explained that my course was vocational and as a British Citizen I did not need a visa and could enter on the wavier program.
STILL not convinced I finally got in touch with the Customs and Border Patrol. I took the womans name who I spoke to and she quoted me the rules and regs out of her immigration book and the reference numbers I could quote to the immigration officer at JFK when I arrived in case I had any problem.
On departing the UAE I made sure I brought all correspondance from the departments I spoke to. I also had my TSA approval application which I could not complete until getting my fingerprints taken at Denver International Airport. I booked the appointment for the fingerprints before leaving the UAE. On arrival at JFK, the immigration officer asked me what Im doing. I said aircraft type training in Denver...and before I got a chance to finish I was admitted to the US for 3 months.
Finally, 3 days later after getting the fingerprints done I received my authorisation to train from the TSA and that was it.
I would just suggest to anybody unsure about their visa requirements to personally check with every authority possible, check, double check and tripple check. Type rating visas are a bit of a grey area in the US as nobody knows what type of course its classed as. When researching into my course, I got in touch with Flight Safety in LGA who told me that I would have to go accross on an aircrew visa. If I wasnt a member of an airline, I could not do a type rating in the US. However I found that this was untrue.
Don't know if this will help anyone but there u go
Cheers DB
