T1000,
It took me around 30 mintues of form filling and a general chat with a very nice man at Orlando FSDO four and a half years ago. Walked out with a temporary FAA PPL for no fees whatsoever.
To have it validated took a two hour flight and around an hour ground school (BFR) which also acted as a checkout on a Warrior at OFT (then Euroflight), but don't get me started about OFT. Okay it took them a few months of constant emails, letters etc to get my $1000 back from my account. Then my bookings on the warrior mysteriously dissapeared overnight... etc etc.
My FAA CPL/IR took four weeks this year but I had to do some training for that!
To get an FAA PPL based on your current ICAO PPL, you will need to go through the verification process. I have posted a detailed process on how to go about this
here.
Best wishes,
Charlie Zulu.