big.al,
I can tell you 100% that you need a visa. I am a school which offers the visa. I am sure that there are going to be many posts that say I am just trying to scare people onto a visa. I personally do not understand why people want to lie to the Immigration Officer to enter the U.S. and risk deportation. If you are caught training without the proper visa you could risk loosing your chance to enter the U.S. for the rest of your life. I know this is unlikely, but it is the extreme case of what could happen to you.
Several years ago, I decided to make the primary training that Naples Air Center would offer to be C.A.A. and later J.A.A. This meant a major focus on European Students. Therefore to do the training properly we needed to get authorization to issue M-1 visas. This process took years and thousands of dollars.
I currently have employees in place that issue the visas and even more employees that oversee the quality control to guarantee top performance of the program.
I know this sounds expensive, it is.
I do not charge the student one penny for the M-1 visa. I get insulted when people say I am scaring students into visas. The reason I offer the M-1 because it is the right thing to do.
It is part of the way I run my school, no shortcuts. Everything is 100% by the book.
I hope that gives a definitive answer.
Sincerely,
Capt. Richard J. Gentil, Pres.
Naples Air Center, Inc.
P.S. I had posted the M-1 visa form in another thread, the form is simple to fill out.
Read the Thread on the M-1 visa here and see.