American Pilot considering career in Europe

[udairman71]

I'm am american college student, and I'm going to school to be a pilot. I recently took a class trip to Europe, and I loved every minute of it. I think I'd like to live there for some time, but I know that there are hurdles to being a pilot in Europe. I've spent some time researching what I need to do, but there's so much. I was wondering if anyone could give me advice on how to do it, so I can better make the decision as to what I want to do later. When I graduate from school I'll be a commercial, multi, and instrument pilot.

Thanks for the help and advice.

[redsnail]

Do you have the right to live and work in a European country?

If so, can you afford to change the licence.

Check the UK CAA's "LASORS" for all the details.

Essentially, you'll have to do the Class 1 medical, all 14 ATPL exams, some flying to convert your CPL and a min of 15 hours (inc synthetic trainer time) to convert your IR. It's not cheap.

[Captain_djaffar]

check if you have full right of working full time and live in any european country first.
Not necessarily the right of abode.
(a leave to remain indefinitely or even a work permit would do)
But practically no work permit are delivered to fresh license holders,and that too of non JAA standard if you are not european.They are given mostly to highly houred required pilots if i am not wrong.


One thing you could do if you hold a degree in certain other field,apply under the skilled immigrant scheme to come to the uk.
Then there you 'swap' job 'legally'.

at last apart from marrying an EU chick,there's no way.
cheers and good luck

[MartinCh]

Well, if you're female (no mention of gender in your post) pilot in the making, I'd go for marriage of convenience :-P I need hassle-free training in the US.

Back to reality.

As the guys wrote, it's not easy peasy. Having grandparent from one of the European country could help. Some of them would give you work permit or right to live and some citizenship if you apply. Then it'll be easier.
Just off my head, Portugese (you have to live in PT for some time under new rules), Italian, Irish, Polish passports. Maybe more. Be creative.

UK citizen grandparent can score you right of abode in the UK (5 year residence and work permit)
Some companies might require EU passport though. There was another thread about US citizen lady for cabin crew job..

UK is changing it's skilled work visa policies. Not sure you'd pass the mark if you don't have any degree and not high previous income.