Originally Posted by B200Drvr
IBLB,
I agree with most of what you are saying, except the ATPL conversion. In the 80's you used to be able to get an FAA ATP issued on a foreign ATPL. with no test. I did my CFMEII in 2000 and had numerous foreign ATP pilots who had been offered "N" reg jobs and were required to do the full FAA ATP written and flight check as only a Private license was issued on the"basis of"
Has this now changed again?
No, you are right, i think i didn't express myself that well. What i meant to say is that if you have a FULL ATPL you can get a straight conversion by taking the written and a flight test. You are not required to have another FAA certificate of any kind. (that's what i meant with straight away)
If you do not have an ATPL, but for instance a CPL. you need to first have or get a PPL, an IR and the CPL. so that is a minimum of one ppl-conversion, 2 writtens and 2 flight tests. And since a frozen ATPL is not an ATPL, but a CPL, the last situation is applicable.
Smithgd, as
theWings points out, your FAA certificate may be valid for life, but if the foreign certificate which it is based upon expires, you still cannot use it.
However, the only certificate that you can get based upon a foreign license now is a PPL. It is not possible to get a CPL or ATPL based upon a foreign license. (It has been possible in the past)
Like
B200Drvr says, if you want to fly multi, it has to say it on your FAA certificate (same for the IR). Whether you achieve this by getting a newly issued certificate based upon your foreign, or if you do a checkride, is up to you. Personally (especially since you already have a FAA PPL) I would do the checkride, and make it a stand-alone certificate.
The FAA form linked in the above message is not for ammending certificates. It's for initial validations only. If you want to add a category, class or rating to a FAA certificate, you can use the 8710 form. You do need the above form if you want to validate a license because it has changed certificate number.