PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Becoming a pilot in the US - is it even possible for me?
Old 1st July 2025 | 12:32
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1201alarm
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Joined: Oct 2015
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From: above Tranquility Base coming long
germanaviator, for now the US market is closed for you, you neither have the hours nor the licence. Both are however solvable.

If you can choose, choose the A320 job over the A220 job and then fly as much as possible. If only A220 is offered, fly as much as possible on the A220. While doing so, you will have enough time to investigate further on options into getting into the US system immigration wise (the immigration hurdle is the biggest).

About the licence: did your flight training at EFA happen in the US? If yes, how many hours did you collect on N-registered planes? You might be able to do an FAA checkride directly and with that obtain the US equivalent of the licence you aspire to in EASA land. Or you might at least obtain a FAA-PPL. To do this you need to do the required FAA-medical. Some EASA flight medical examiners offer the FAA-medical at the same visit, you just pay a bit more money, and you go home with both the EASA- and FAA-medical.

To do the FAA checkride (and possibly some refreshment training before) you need a TSA clearance I believe, but this will be achievable, you just need to follow the bureacratic steps. Flight schools will tell you what they need to accept you as a foreign student. You will also need a theory exam, which you can pass at any FAA FSDO, and you best prepare with test preparators like Gleim.

The good thing about US licences is that they never expire, you just lose currency. Then you need to regain currency if you want to exercise the priviledges of your licence again. So to obtain the FAA CPL-IR and later FAA-ATPL-IR is not such a headache with regards to keeping it valid as it is in Europe.

Best online resource about US aviation (US equivalent to pprune): airlinepilotcentral.com

And may be you might be able to get a green card as a flight instructor? But then I would not choose that over getting hours on a jet in Europe. Rather do it in winter time, you might be able to get time off in Europe during winter time when flying demand is low.

You see, many pieces of a complex puzzle. You need to navigate all of them. The TSA, medical and licence things should not be too expensive to achieve. I wish you luck.
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