An aircraft being vectored for an instrument approach reported the airport in sight and was cleared ...

Narrative:

On the CEEME2 STAR after pirue at 11000 cleared direct to budde (ILS 08 FAF) and to cross budde at 3000. Enroute and descending to 3000; ATC said advise when you have the airport in sight. Level at 3000 and not at budde yet we spot the field. Pilot not flying advised ATC of the field in sight and we were cleared for the visual runway 08. Pilot flying selected FMS guidance panel to heading and we proceeded to the field and decent to landing visual on runway 08. After landing and taxiing in with bur ground we were told that socal had called and wanted to remind us of the mandatory 3000 at budde. It was not a problem just a warning of the restriction. Reviewing the ILS 08 bur approach plate has a ball note#2 that is for localizer only mandatory 3000 at budde. We were cleared and doing a visual to bur runway 08? I believe when a pilot is cleared a visual that you are no longer on an instrument approach and therefore are subject to VFR.I feel that there is a lack in clarity and assumptions are being made. If we were to still proceed to budde then cleared for the visual that should have been said. Then the crossing budde at 3000 would have been executed and we would have initiated the decent after budde. But we were cleared for the visual prior to budde. Plus the mandatory 3000 is on the localizer only for runway 08.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An aircraft being vectored for an instrument approach reported the airport in sight and was cleared for a Visual Approach. TRACON relayed a message to the aircraft that they had a mandatory crossing restriction even though it no longer applied due to them conducting a Visual Approach.

Narrative: On the CEEME2 STAR after PIRUE at 11000 cleared direct to BUDDE (ILS 08 FAF) and to cross BUDDE at 3000. Enroute and descending to 3000; ATC said advise when you have the airport in sight. Level at 3000 and not at BUDDE yet we spot the field. Pilot not flying advised ATC of the field in sight and we were cleared for the visual runway 08. Pilot flying selected FMS guidance panel to HDG and we proceeded to the field and decent to landing visual on runway 08. After landing and taxiing in with BUR ground we were told that SoCal had called and wanted to remind us of the mandatory 3000 at BUDDE. It was not a problem just a warning of the restriction. Reviewing the ILS 08 BUR approach plate has a ball note#2 that is for LOC only mandatory 3000 at BUDDE. We were cleared and doing a visual to BUR runway 08? I believe when a pilot is cleared a visual that you are no longer on an instrument approach and therefore are subject to VFR.I feel that there is a lack in clarity and assumptions are being made. If we were to still proceed to BUDDE then cleared for the visual that should have been said. Then the crossing BUDDE at 3000 would have been executed and we would have initiated the decent after BUDDE. But we were cleared for the visual prior to BUDDE. Plus the mandatory 3000 is on the LOC only for runway 08.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1318178
Time
Date	201512
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	BUR.Airport
State Reference	CA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Challenger 300
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types

An aircraft being vectored for an instrument approach reported the airport in sight and was cleared for a visual approach. TRACON relayed a message to the aircraft that they had a mandatory crossing restriction even though it no longer applied due to them conducting a visual approach.