Americans don't understand how difficult it can be for foreigners to get a visa to travel to the US. For a Filipino it's especially hard because a very large number of them would love to come to the US and work for US wages. Before they can get a flight, which might cost as much as 6 months normal wages in the Philippines, they have to apply to the US for a tourist (or some sort of) Visa which is only good for 90 days. Almost ALL tourist Visas are turned down unless the person can show that they have considerable assets (land, bank accounts etc) being left behind in the Philippines so that our government believes they are truly _visiting_ and will return at the end of their visa. Applying for a visa to the US is a long complicated process. The recognized Filipino Champions have it a bit easier than the average Filipino and I'm sure their sponsors have lawyers who handle all those details, but often our government has their foot up their a$$ and take longer to process the applications than necessary. This was also the case with some of the other Asian players from other countries.
As Americans, we are lucky to have much more freedom to travel than we allow into our own borders, but I guess we'd really have a mess if we didn't have restrictions!
just more hot air!
Sherm