N-registered aircraft w/ European license
Last month I tried to get the same information from FSDO. My company wanted me to copilot an N-registered BBJ commercially in Europe – the question was if I could do this without an FAA license but with a JAA CPL IR frozen ATP.
Their reply kind of went like this:
Private operation of the jet would not be a problem. I could have my JAA PPL verified by the FAA FSDO and then fly privately.
Commercial operation is a different thing. In order to legally fly an N-registered aircraft, you need to have at least a FAA CPL. But, if you don’t want to do the FAA/IR, there is another thing you could do:
You do the FAA CPL and than add your JAA/CAA IR to the FAA CPL, all you would need to do is a Foreign Pilot Instrument Verification (paper) Test or something like that, which would give you the right to fly IFR with N-registered aircraft, based on your "foreign" CAA license.
However, the IR would then be restricted to your JAA/CAA license, which means you would have to keep both the FAA CPL and your JAA/CAA license current in order to be legal.
I hope this helps.
Cheers