I am following this thread with interest. I would note that Oasis Hong Kong have just suspended services, which is a great shame and it is a lot that I feel personally as I knew this airline well and even was on the first fight. I am in the middle of an ATPL theory course right now. The cost of maintaining the IR rating has been mentioned several times. How expensive is this? What about maintaining a MEP rating and CPL? I ask this because I intend to follow WWW's advice by training slowly and wait it out. My basic idea is to leave the IR alone for now and take advantage of the low dollar to build hours in the USA. I would appreciate any advice as to the best strategy.