You want a clear pathway. There isn't one.
I would definitely recommend the US for hour building, but avoid any school that has EASA written anywhere on their website! (They tend to be the most expensive) in fact if its just hour building, then rent from a time building specialist if you want to get it down toward £50 per hour.
You definitely don't need an FAA CPL (they require 250 hours, you want to finish everything by 200) - unless you already have a green card you have no chance of getting hired.
As for the IR - the easiest way these days is the CBIR route. Anything you can get during your hour building will count towards it. IMC/IRR or FAA IR, whatever you can pick up with your spare hours. If you do it that way, both the IR and CPL become 15 hour courses, and work out cheaper than a combined course in Europe.
Last edited by rudestuff; 28th Jun 2018 at 09:05.