UK Citizen working as an FAA FI in the USA

[magpie]

I am wondering how complex the procedure is to train with and then instruct for a US based flight training school as a UK citizen. I suspect there will be complex visa requirements and limitations/restrictions on changing employers (perhaps to a regional airline).

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience of this?

[B2N2]

Find a school that can issue a J1 visa.
The only visa that allows you to work in your field of training.
If you start from scratch you can have your CFI in 6-9 months leaving you a year and a half on your visa to work.
A student visa like M1 does not give you work priviliges.
Need more info ? ask..

[minus273]

Hi there,

You will be limited to working as a flight instructor on a J-1 visa, I believe that you can do some other work like bar work whilst you are a student but it is limited. This also may have changed since 9-11.

The process of getting the visa is not that difficult really, you will have to find a school that offers J-1 visas once you have found the one that you like and made sure that they are not rip-off merchants you will then have to go get your visa from London.

Once you have jumped through all the hoops that they require it will be upto you to make sure your training goes as fast as it can. (This will also be dependant on other things out of your control, but I have found that the students that pass through the fastest and on budget are the ones that are proactive about their training)

When you are a qualified CFI you can then work, if the school you go to has no positions free you may look for work at other schools and when you have found one, even it is not able to hold J-1 status you can work there. (this may have changed since 9-11)

The chances of moving onto a job with a regional are slim to none. It would require a change of visa and one of the old ways of sponsoring someone through the company I am sure has dried up. There are still too many people looking for jobs and it is usually based on there not being a suitable US person to do the job.

Your other option would be to marry and go that way. It is still a pain in the ass, believe me I am still doing paperwork for it.

So if you are thinking of coming to the US and being able to change from your J-1 visa to something else, it just isn't going to happen.

I Would say that the flying work here is fun. I arrived with 200ish hours and left 2 years later with My FAA ATPL CFI CFII MEI 1650TT and 200 multi. I did have a CPL/MIR from Canada before I arrived, so made the training easier.

I arrived on a J-1 met the wife, worked with her for 2 years, went back to the UK for a few months to do JAA stuff and came back and decided to get married.

Even if you do get married it will take them almost 3-6months to sort your visa out.

Anyways good luck with what you chose to do.

If you need anymore info feel free to PM me.

-273

P.S. There are some good threads on this in the wannabes forum, I am sure if you did a search it will generate plenty of info.

[hugh flung_dung]

Magpie
It looks like you only live about 2 miles from Old Sarum so you could do all the ratings (JAR) from a short bike ride.

I don't know what stage you're starting from but you could do PPL, IMC, FI (and all the add-ons), CPL, ME and IR on a part-time basis whilst holding down a "proper" job. If there are vacancies you may even get offered an FI job at the end of it! All with British Beer, girls (and wx).

I don't have a vested interest but I've worked there for a long time on a part-time basis. It's an excellent club and airfield, friendly and without most of the hassles that you hear of at other schools/clubs.
PM if you want more info.

HFD