PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Foreign FAA CFI
Thread: Foreign FAA CFI
View Single Post
Old 26th Jul 2008, 10:01
  #2 (permalink)  
mattpilot
 
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Germany
Posts: 407
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Can't help ya with 'anywhere in the world', but if your still in the US then there are employment opportunities, although not that attractive considering the amount of paperwork.

If you were on a F-1 Visa you could apply for a OPT, or optional practical training, which is good for 1 year after you graduate to teach & get experience. This is what i did.

If you were smart enough to get a bachelor degree while u were in the US, you could apply for a H-1b visa that would allow you to work for up to 4 years, renewable one time for another 4 years. Problem here is its not only expensive for you (3-4k $) but also for the school as there's security costs & fraud prevention costs the school must pay and can't push off to the prospective employee (1-1.5k $). Other thing is, the H-1b program is currently overloaded and only 60% get accepted. Gotta apply by May 1st and then it can take up to 18 months for you to get your working permit. I was going to do this, except the college i was going to continue to work for had an employee that was less than competent and fumbled with my application - thus i missed the deadline.

Although as i said, the costs involved & the waiting period make this approach not very undesirable. Only reason to do it is because at the end of 3-4 years you can apply for a greencard (which will take another 2-3 years, if lucky, to get).


In an optimal situation with competent school officials that actually help you and not screw you over, and i realize this doesn't help you omar, but maybe others, is to go to a school that has a 4 year college program while you learn to fly. After 1 year in school and good grades you can work partime 20 hours a week. If you have your CFI certificate than you can already start flying while continuing to go to school for the bachelor program. Once your graduation nears, be sure to apply for the OPT to tide you over 1 year from the point you graduate to the point you get your H-1B visa. After you graduate, immediately start applying for the H-1B and hope all goes well. If your lucky enough to get it, apply for greencard in 3-4 years. Just FYI, thats a lot of years to spend as a flight instructor in the hopes of eventually getting a greencard. I know a few fellas who've done that.
mattpilot is online now