LR - good luck to you mate!
here's the story:
DOJ Clears Path For Foreign Pilot Training
By Aviation Daily Staff
U.S. flight schools, banned from training foreign applicants for nearly 16 months for lack of proper background checks, will be cleared to resume the training under a rule the Justice Department published yesterday.
In the Aviation and Transportation Security Act passed in November 2001, Congress required that foreign students undergo up to a 45-day background check before training to pilot aircraft weighing 12,500 pounds or more. Acknowledging that such a delay could hamper recurrent training, DOJ last winter provided "advance consent" -- and later expedited clearance procedures -- for pilots with a type rating. DOJ, however, refused to clear pilots seeking their first type rating, saying it needed time to establish the background check procedures.
This refusal led to a de facto ban on certain training, costing U.S. flight schools millions of dollars in revenues and hobbling airlines that had hired new pilots with plans to train them. One major flight school attributed $20 million in losses to the delay in procedures.
DOJ's rule came one week after Senate aviation subcommittee Chairman Trent Lott (R-Miss.) agreed to look into DOJ's inaction. General Aviation Manufacturers Association President Ed Bolen had appealed for the Senate's help, calling DOJ's delay an "outrage."
Over the past 16 months, DOT was able to create the Transportation Security Administration, which conducted criminal and financial background checks, fingerprinting and drug testing on 44,000 baggage screeners, Bolen said, adding, "Over that same period of time, the DOJ has not been able to conduct a single background check on an alien seeking initial flight training on an aircraft weighing 12,500 pounds or more. That is inexcusable."
While the rule was published yesterday, the prohibition on flight training will not take effect until March 17. Under the rule, DOJ will continue expedited processing of flight school applicants seeking recurrent training or additional type ratings. Under the expedited procedures, flight schools will notify DOJ of their plans to train qualified foreign applicants and can begin training after receiving DOJ approval. Most other foreign applicants will have to follow a two-step process -- first complete a lengthy form providing detailed background information for DOJ review and then, if no red flags are raised, undergo fingerprinting for final review.