Originally Posted by
HkCaGu
Someone can enlighten us, I don't think non-US national/LPR crew can commute to work legally from a US base.
They can.
I was educated in this topic previously. While non-US national/LPR can't perform domestic duties, they can still use the D visa to perform necessary international duty. For example, a former HKG crew can be reassign to SFO (very likely in this case) base and continue to work on SFO-HKG. If necessary, the crew can be deadheaded to EWR for EWR-HKG. But the crew can't work on the P.S. route, i.e. SFO-EWR.
Based on my reading, the operating base concepts applies to fishing vessels, not aircraft.