Originally Posted by
Polorutz
Hello Gents and Ladies of this great forum,
I am a European citizen with a UK CAA issued ATPL, 6700TT 5000+ A320 with 2700 PIC on the A320. I currently fly for a LoCo here in Europe.
Due to family reasons I would like to emigrate to the USA, I'm not too interested in the green card aspect of the process but the licence part.
I know I would have to convert my UK ATPL to FAA ATP and I believe the process is as follows.
1) Licence verification from UK CAA so they can release info to FAA.
2) Licence verification to provide FAA Private SE VFR
3) FAA ATP CTP Course
4) FAA ATP Knowledge Test
5) ATP Checkride.
I have a few questions:
-Being type rated on the A320, is there a way to obtain the 320 Type Rating on my FAA licence without having to go through a full TR?
-Should the former not be possible, and provided I wanted to get employed by a regional in the US, which ATP checkride should I go for? MEIR or SEIR? SEIR is cheaper.
-Does having an ATP with a SEIR affect hiring in regionals? Do you require a MEIR to start a type rating in a regional jet?
I would appreciate any info you may have, thank you very much for your time.
-Polo
Hello, your list of to do items is all correct. Very easy and straightforward process. Do the verification and then the ATP CTP course. After you have done the written test, you can take the checkride. The problem will be, as you have no FAA type rating course done, you won’t be able to do the checkride in an A320. I did the same process last year, so I can speak from experience. What I did was to find a shortened type rating course with prior on type experience. This way I was able to do the ATP checkride in a 737. Way better then renting a Seneca or similar. And you already have a good type rating on your FAA license. If you consider the Regionals, you could only apply with your written ATP. You could then combine the type and ATP checkride which the company pays. But I would strongly recommend to apply to the LCCs, such as JetBlue, Spirit, Frontier or Allegiant. They all fly 320s. It’s way better to work for them than for a Regional. By the way do you have a 4-year Bachelors degree? That would be very important if you want to move up the ladder.
All the best!