Its to do with EASA membership more than EU membership. Nothing stopping you transferring your UK EASA license to say Irish and then applying.
There are actually quiet a few companies that its a condition of contract that you transfer your license to the local CAA when joining. I did a ZFTR for my current type and the last time the company tried to get one through the UK CAA after the 3rd month they gave up and transferred the license to the local, it was issued 3 days after the SOLI transfer and license transfer which took 3 weeks. Ever since then they have made it a condition of perm contract. EASA is nice in theory but seldom works they way they say it does. It shouldn't matter which authority you apply to for a type rating the same paperwork should result in the same outcome. Very seldom is this the case.
I reckon about 40% of our new FO's over the last 6 months have been UK passport holders. And by the voices on the air from Wizzair they have a load of them as well. With the pound so low its more than viable these days to service a debt while being paid in euros and living in a cheap country.
They just want the pilot to sink the costs for the transfer and its done before the type rating start.
Reverse the UK caa are a pain in the backside with none UK TRTO's its just bits of paper after bits of paper, bottom of the pile every time they knock an application back. Just when you think you have cracked it they ask for another bit of paper which has a tenuous link to the whole process. Nobody contacts you when the process stalls or bit of paper is lost. It just sits there until you contact them. If you do it via email it can take up to 2 weeks to respond to an email. Brexit is just an excuse more likely can't be bothered with the delays and BS involved trying to deal with the UK CAA.
The CAA also seems to be stalling SOLI and license documents, last one that I heard about was 8 weeks from start to finish with a no issue transfer of an ATPL.
Last edited by tescoapp; 14th Aug 2018 at 11:05.