Wow!! This thread with a simple question sure turned into a mess of a situation. Sometimes I think people reply to a previous post without even reading the entire thread.
Anyways, as usual we can see the people who talk sense and know what they are talking about, and of course the clueless ones and people just trying to stir up ****!
Wanna Be - you are making way too much of a big deal out of all this as far as trying to make a decision. I have been helping and offering advice to people ever since I got into flying a few years ago, so I will try to keep this simple.
But before I go ahead, MercenaryAli, Patrick already answered your question about why the British are not allowed into the Green Card Lottery. So stop whining! If you researched your informatino properly you would discover that you can apply for residency in the USA based upon your sisters status in the country. Who cares how closely linked by lineage you are to a country based on ancestry. You go far enough back you will find we are all closely linked by lineage - all depends on how far back you go!
So back to the main thread. Wanna Be - you are European. you have a few options in becoming a pilot. Joing the military or pay for it yourself. You have opted to par for it yourself. Now. next step, decide where you want to go to school in the world - there are many places and some cheaper than the U.S. and you can mix them up a bit too if you wanted. However, you have stated that the U.S. is what you reckon is the best place. So, quit mucking around and trying to play with the visa system and just go do it. Yes there are lots of visas you can get. With the way the USA is right now the more you want to play with the system the more it will bite you and you will lose!! People have gone to HAI on an M1 to get their PPL to test the waters. Then they have returned and finished everything else under the J1. If you are sure this is what you want and you have the money behind you then go and get it all done under the J1. If you arent sure if this is what you want, I would reconsider the whole thing as it will most likely not work out for you if you do it half assed!
Now that you know you want to go to school under a J1 pick one of two schools. Research pprune and you will find all the info you need about both of these schools and make a decision!
The next step is simple. Go to school, pay for your training and work hard for it, and enjoy yourself at the same time. Key point, if you aint enjoying it, perhaps it wasnt meant for you.
Now some reality points:
- You will not get hired by an American company as a CFI outside of the U.S. without a work permit.
- Its a great time for our industry. You will get hired as a CFI with your J1 visa - and you do not have to work for the school you trained at. However, as previously stated, you are only allowed to work as flight instructor under the J1 program. You will not get hired as a CFI if you expect a job to fall into your lap. Get off your ass, network and apply yourself. Most American Helicopter schools like to hire foreign CFI's. Why? Because they work hard! (well the majority of them, not all of them!) You will most likely have about a year to work after your training, which means getting as many hours as you can in that year. So you will work 7 days a week if needs be to get those hours. Whereas Americans have thye luxury of not having to bust themeslves due to not having a time restriction.
- In order to get a H1 visa (being sponsored by an American company) you need to have a college education. i.e. a minimum of a degree. Now that being said, the U.S. has only a certain amount of H1 visas available every year and they go fast, as they are for the whole country and the IT industry eats them up fast as they dont have enough skilled locals to do IT jobs, etc. Also the chances of you getting sponsored as a pilot in the U.S. are quite slim. Dont rely on the idea of it.
- Budget for at least 200 hours of flying! Why? Because of insurance mins for Robinsons. You will find out more about this later.
- Decide what you want out of this industry and start to think about how you are going to go about getting it all or getting to your goal. And be realistic!
Well I actually have to finish this off for now. Gotta run! That should do you for now. And you should be able to figure out what people are talking sense and who is talking crap. Good luck!