The situation is extremely ****** up right now.
EASA now treats the UK as an ICAO Third-Country. But it does so retroactively as well, meaning that if you had obtained your licence while the UK was in EASA, it is now no longer an EASA licence. This is what I am most amazed about.
There are two routes to go from an ICAO licence to an EASA licence:
- Commisssion Delegated Regulation EU 2020/723 of 4 March 2020
- US-EU Bilateral Aviation Safety Agreement
The first route involves re-doing all the ATPL exams, which were quite possibly EASA exams when you sat them (FFS!). The second route involves going from the UK to a US licence, and then from US to EU. Canada can also be a bridge licence here: so the conversion route would be: UK -> Canada -> US -> EASA.
It's all just very depressing and ridiculous at the moment.