Expat pilots...

[MacGriffyn]

What are the rules for pilots trained in the U.S. to fly outside of the country?

I lived in germany for five years when I was in the army, lived in Singapore with my family when I was younger...I have no problem living outside of the country (U.S.) where I am a citizen. I am very new to this game, and do not know how it all works. When I am finished with flight school, I don't want to limit where I can go simply because I am an American.

Anyone have any advice/ideas/suggestions? I appreciate any guidance.

K

[Tinstaafl]

Do you mean to work? Or to fly privately?

General rules of thumb:

You can fly pretty much anywhere if your pilot licence matches the aircraft country of registration, using the privileges of your licence/rating eg FAA licence/N reg a/c.

If you want to fly an a/c registered in a different country then you can get your ICAO licence validated for use for private ops. in that country. Presuming both countries are ICAO signatories.

NB: 'ICAO' is the International Civil Aviation Organisation

If you want to work as a pilot in a different country then you will need to convert your US licence to the other country's equivalent, as long as the equivalent enables you to do commercial flights. It will usually involve some amount of theory & flight tests.

Some countries may accept/adopt another country's licences as sufficient on their own for all operations. More likely if they're a protectorate or similar OR have some mutual recognition agreement eg Oz & New Zealand.

[MacGriffyn]

Sorry...yes...I mean to fly commercially. I remember how outstanding the flights aboard Singapore airlines were, and I wanted to be one of the guys with the blue jackets up there on the flight deck making that behemoth 747 go where they wanted it to go.

Would a person simply apply to the other airlines? For example, I complete school...I fly for a US domestic airline for four/five years with a clean record...would I then simply seek employment with, for example, Lufthansa?

For any of you that fly expat for an airline...how did you get there? What was your experience? How would I follow?

Once again, I appreciate it.

K

[OzExpat]

No real mystery to it. Just apply for any jobs on offer, just as you would in your own country. If your experience matches the job specifications, you'll prpbably get an interview. Every airline that recruits expats (and I'm not at all sure that Lufthansa is one of them) will have its' own arrangements for you to get to the interview.

If you get the job, they'll tell you what you need to do, to qualify for a local licence. Most companies will also provide some sort of assistance with that, but the level of assistance can sometimes be pretty basic. In some parts of the world, the companies will point you in the right direction for exams/flight tests etc., but will want to see that you can sort it all out for yourself from there. The thing they are interested in is a pilot who can think and act for himself, so they limit the assistance they provide.

Having said all of that, there's a lot of expats in various parts of the world and we've all gone thru the same sort of hoops. There's no reason to think that you would fail where we succeeded, provided that you put the effort into it. And that, too, is pretty much like any job anywhere.