I agree with the greaser. I followed this root to a frozen ATPL 5 years ago. I came back to the UK with 1000hrs (400hrs twin), mostly from instructing, FAA CPL/IR and still had to do a GFT and an IR. Just no minimum hours requirement. Although with the implementation of JARs i'm sure it's changed e.g. requirement for MCC for example.
Good luck and don't be afraid to bang on a few tables! I found foreign licence conversions come right at the bottom of most schools priority list.