Originally Posted by
Capt. Flamingo
Regarding the license verification by GCAA, is there anyway of doing it before resigning EK? Or is that an authority to authority thing? Sorry for the drift.
The CAAC requires a license verification with the GCAA. Getting the GCAA verification is usually not a problem, however they have been slow walking these in the past resulting in several months delay.
BUT you also need two letters from your employer; one is a so called "No Accidents/Incidents" letter (Which the CAAC recently changed into a "Rewards or Punishments records" letter), the other is a detailed flight time verification.
EK Fleet knows that the CAAC requires an exact wording on these letters and thus refuses to issue those letters; instead they offer you a boilerplate "Confirmation of employment" and basic flight time certificate fully knowing that this is not sufficient for the CAAC.
In the past there were a few good Samaritans at EK that had access to both the gold embossed EK letterhead and stamps and also the balls to issue these letters in clear defiance of the official position. My understanding is that these people have now either resigned or are no longer issuing these letters.
The Agency can't really help you with that as these Documents have to be issued by EK. Having them issued in advance might work, but
AFAIK no one at EK issues these anymore.
I know of at least one former colleague who had already resigned from EK with an offer from a Chinese carrier and was unable to obtain these letters from Fleet resulting of him being without a job... He eventually got a DEC position with another (non-chinese) airline for vastly inferior T&C's.
Unless you have the exact wording required in your letter you will not be able to pass the license verification/Background check, no matter what some Agencies are telling you.
Some are recommending EK pilots to go to an Airline like Korean or Ethiopian for a year first as those accept a plain vanilla GCAA license verification and after some time there then will issue the paperwork needed for the CAAC upon resignation.
EK management knows how attractive the packages at either Hainan or CSA are for EK expats looking to move home and they do everything they can to keep you in their little prison.