Do Pilots/FA's need visas when they do a turn?
 

I was thinking todya about flight crews that travel to another country from the US--say Mexico, Belize, etc, and simply return the same day. Do they have to be processed by immigration in the transit country? What happens when they return to the US?

I cannot speak to any particular country but they are subject to similar passport and visa regulations as any other traveler. There is also such a thing as 'crew visas'. Now, if you are asking whether they are given the same scrutiny at the borders: Probably not.

For Canada, if our turn has a sit on the ground longer than 90 minutes, we have to get off the plane and go through customs. Otherwise, we just fly in and fly out. I have never done another country on a turn.

Depends on local immigration laws / procedures at the turnaround point.

Usually they can get in and out without any visa. The head of the crew will carry a document called general declaration which lists the names of the crew. Then the crew can get in without even a stamp in the passport. Think about it. Their visa would be full of stamp within less than a month if they stamp in and out every time.

This will be more apt for TravelBuzz where it can get wider attention, since it is not United-specific

cblaisd
Moderator, United

As an ex United Express f/a, I had to have my passport in possession when I flew to Canada.

For entering the USA, foreign flight crew visa categories include:

C-1D Combined transit and crewmember visa
D-1 Crewmember departing on same vessel of arrival
D-2 Crewman departing by means other than the vessel of arrival

Temporary visitors for pleasure to the US are granted B-2 visas.

I wouldn't be surprised to find that nations that require visas of US citizens have similar visa categories.

The interesting thing here is that there is no category of visa provided for a foreign crewmember who deadheads offline on a domestic US segment (eg. BA pilot deadheads in on BA into SFO then deadheads on an AA flight from SFO-LAX to operate ex-LAX).

The US DHS has recently ruled that crewmembers in these categories may NOT enter on either C1D, D1, D2 or B1/B2 category visas as they receive remuneration for the offline deadhead segment which would then qualify as "illegal work". Hence they would need to have a temporary work permit such as an H1 to be allowed to perform this, but of course the occupation would not qualify for an H1 (not to mention that there wouldn't be enough time to go through the petitition process even if it did) so its kinda a catch-22.

This has caused a bit of a problem for airlines positioning crewmembers in irregular operation situations. Airlines are now forced to deadhead them on an international leg into the US (eg. BA would fly the pilot LHR-YVR and then offline deadhead from YVR-LAX to enter on a C1D in that case).

While I doubt this is DHS' intention, is it possible that DHS wants the foreign carrier to offline deadhead the entire positioning so the BA crewmember would fly AA to LAX, thus giving money to an American carrier? In this instance, it would seem DHS could claim that they are "protecting" US commerce from workers without visas, I guess?

In MEX, for example, crews just stroll about the "international area" without clearing immigration (if they're turning with the same aircraft). I imagine that that's what happens a lot of the times outside of the US, where "international areas" are the norm.

I have never needed a visa when doing a turn, and Canada is the only country I'm aware of that requires us to do the customs/immigration dance when not leaving the airport (only if your ground time is over 90 minutes).

When we return to the US, we still have to do customs/immigration (unless we're returning from a country where passengers were able to clear into the US there - such as Canada).

Some countries (France, for example) prefer US crews to have visas even when they're not required for US passengers - as a courtesy to their government, I was told.

Stuff like this will vary according to the country, and to their relationship with the crew's home country.