Applying from a different country: can the application be dismissed because of interview expenses? I am applying for jobs currently, mostly tenure-track jobs, in mathematics. I am currently living in Europe, but I will apply to many jobs in the US and Canada. If I recall correctly, when a candidate is shortlisted for an interview, the expenses are paid by the university. 

My question is: would a hiring committee dismiss an application because it comes from "far away"? The budget needed for flying in someone from another state in the US is not the same as the budget needed for flying in someone from Europe. So I'm thinking they might say "Ok, this candidate seems interesting, but we also have an equally interesting candidate which lives closer to us, so let's call the latter". But people in search committees will know better than me!

Note: I would not completely dismiss the idea of paying expenses for myself (in the case of a very interesting interview), but I don't think that's the usual process, and it would sound weird to say so in the application. So this is not really a question about money.

Also, please keep in mind that this is with regards to a somewhat normal application of a regular candidate. I'm not a Fields medallist, in which case those considerations would hardly apply.
In short, the answer is that yes, a search committee (or the administrators who would have to pay for the travel) could decide not to invite someone to an interview or invite them without agreeing to pay their travel expenses.  I don't believe that there's any legal requirement under US law to reimburse applicants for travelling to an interview, and I've seen some institutions (mostly community colleges) refuse to pay any travel expenses.  A more common thing is to reimburse only for travel expenses within the US (so you'd be responsible for paying your own way to New York or LA.)    What will happen in any particular case depends on the practices of an individual institution.   

If you are planning a trip to the US for some other reason, you might mention in your cover letter that you'll be in the US and could do an interview as part of that trip.