So just a note for those who want their IFR experience to be valid in an FAA IR cursus : ask your instructors (or chase them, for previous flights!) to endorse each line of your logbook they flew with you.
It is the only way to make your experience valid.
The FAA IR needs 15hrs dual and I would agree that that time ought to be signed off. It's wise but not a requirement. However the remainder of the 40hrs is solo instrument flight which nobody else is in a position to sign off.
Moreover, your IMC rating training maybe taken into account, as long as the instructor was an IR instructor, not an IMC instructor.
You'll have to prove that to the DPE.
Do you have the FAR reference for that, Frog-ATC? That is absolutely not the practice in all FAA training I have seen, UK or USA. The FAR wording is "authorised instructor".
There are particular individuals, no names mentioned but they have been well known, outside the USA, with a history of certain practices, indeed... especially when working in association with a training establishment
It isn't right. Instrument training by an IMCR instructor is fine and acceptable. Anyway, the pilot has to pass the checkride.
The scenario where an IMCR holder turns up in the USA for the FAA IR is very common. Most of them turn up with a large # of dual instrument hours - obviously more than the 15hrs min. But practically all of them need at least another 15hrs to reach the FAA IR checkride standard, which makes the original IMCR training logbook entries irrelevant because they get the 15hrs all over again.
I have totally lost count of the number of people I know who followed this route.
Re UK instructors, I don't believe they are limited to instructing in the UK. Cross channel fly-outs are common, and the school tries to maximise revenue by placing a student in the LH seat and an instructor in the RH seat. That way they get the aircraft rental plus instructor rate, and they set it up so this happens on every leg flown. The time is logged by the student as instructional flight. So I don't think there is a ban on foreign instruction here.