Originally Posted by
spitfire
I am very familiar with the FAA biennial and this is significantly more complicated. The FAA doesn't charge fees, doesn't make me provide certified copies of government documents, doesn't make my ability to fly conditional on their 'approving' my biennial on an unknown timeframe; and doesn't make make my ability to fly conditional on two government agencies cooperating with one another to exchange information, again on an unknown timeframe.
If I was to rent a N-reg in the US I would have to apply for a based-on FAA certificate, for which the FAA would need the CAA to confirm that I do have a valid licence. Before I could use it I would have to do a flight review, which includes verbally proving that I know FAA regulations and also do the not-a-test-but-if-you're-not-good-enough-I-won't-sign-your-logbook flight.
The CAA's validation of foreign licences is pretty much the same process the FAA puts visiting pilots through.