I’m an Aussie currently flying in the USA for a large jet regional. I have dual citizenship and also moved to the USA for love. Damn these American women! Currently NO regional allows foreigners to fly for them unless they have a permanent residency in the form of a green card or US citizenship. Also NO regional airline in the US will sponsor you or is allowed to under the current system. The airlines would need to prove first that there is a lack of pilots here in the US before the government would allow visas to foreign pilots which is something the pilot unions here would have something to say about.
Currently, there is no shortage of pilots, just a shortage willing to work for what a regional will currently pay.
For example my experience on first year regional pay is this-
$23 an hour at a monthly guarantee of 75hrs = $1725 Gross
Per Diem paid at $1.65 an hour
Now being on reserve for the first 6 months meant that I never broke guarantee and per diem was only a couple of hundred dollars a month.
Now take out deductions of State Tax, Medicare, Federal Tax, Social Security, Medical, Dental, union dues and uniform and your net comes out to about $1200 to $1300 a month. Not a whole lot to live on and pretty embarrassing as a “professional pilot” to earn so little. Try living on this after paying the rent in a major US city.
The regionals here are starting to panic as the endless pool of cheap pilots is starting to dry up and they are trying everything possible rather than raising pay and benefits. Three of the largest regionals totaling around 9500 pilots voted down substandard or concessionary contracts put forward by their respective companies earlier in the year. It will be interesting to see how things play out. As for the job posting on AFAP I find it hard to believe that this is legit. Why would a US regional who are already a bunch of tight wads bring in foreign pilots on an all expenses paid move to the US?