  We construct semi-local and global realizations of SU(5) GUTs in F-theory
that utilize a U(1)_PQ symmetry to protect against dimension four proton decay.
Symmetries of this type, which assign charges to H_u and H_d that forbid a tree
level \mu term, play an important role in scenarios for neutrino physics and
gauge mediation that have been proposed in local F-theory model building. As
demonstrated in arXiv:0906.4672, the presence of such a symmetry implies the
existence of non-GUT exotics in the spectrum, when hypercharge flux is used to
break the GUT group and to give rise to doublet-triplet splitting. These
exotics are of precisely the right type to solve the unification problem in
such F-theory models and might also comprise a non-standard messenger sector
for gauge mediation. We present a detailed description of models with U(1)_PQ
in the semi-local regime, which does not depend on details of any specific
Calabi-Yau four-fold, and then specialize to the geometry of arXiv:0904.3932 to
construct three-generation examples with the minimal allowed number of non-GUT
exotics. Among these, we find a handful of models in which the D3-tadpole
constraint can be satisfied without requiring the introduction of
anti-D3-branes. Finally, because SU(5) singlets that carry U(1)_PQ charge may
serve as candidate right-handed neutrinos or can be used to lift the exotics,
we study their origin in compact models and motivate a conjecture for how to
count their zero modes in a semi-local setting.
