If you apply to the CAA for an IMC rating on the basis of your FAA IR, you may well be granted one for no more than a payment (i.e. no test) and you then have an IMC rating which you have to keep current in the usual way.
Rather than keep the IMC current in the usual way, so long as your FAA IR remians current, why can't you just 're-apply' and have the IMC added again without having to do any flight test? After all you meet all the requirements to be exempted from all ground exams and flight tests for the initial IMC application....When I applied for my IMC based on my IR, there was a box on the form asking when my IR expired. Now with the FAA IR it doesn't expire so long as you remain current, so as I couldn't think of anything better to put down, I just bunged down two years...and now my IMC is valid until the date I put in the box. Maybe I should have put 10 years in the box
airways = class A airspace
I wonder why they feel the need to make airways class A airspace? I would rather fly cross channel at 8000' than at 3000', but unfortunately as I don't have a JAA IR, my ceiling is limited to 3499' (where I live anyway). Should be Class A above a certian FL, for example FL100, and below this something else, or have an excemption in place allowing IMC holders into airways, but not nescessarily other class A airspace.
On the subject of IMC v IR, I would say, as has been pointed out previously, currency is the key. However, getting the IR requires a fair bit of extra training compared to the IMC rating, but after you are rated, its how you use it that counts.
Cheers
EA