No one is lying in this situation and you need to understand what each licence entails.
To go solo in US airspace in an N registered aircraft you will need an FAA medical, which during your training also has attached an FAA student pilot certificate. You will need to get one to complete training for any type of private training in the USA, regardless of whether FAA or JAA PPL.
This FAA student pilot certificate is NOT intended for hour building post a JAA PPL. It is intended for you to train towards your PPL, and is used by the JAA flight schools so you can go solo in US airspace, in an N registered aircraft.
I don't know of any school which will let students hour build on a student pilot certificate, because it is extremely limited as you would have to get an instructor to authorise every flight individually, as you are effectivly still a PPL student, and it is not what the student pilot certificate is intended for. I would love to see the outcome of an investigation if you had an accident and they found out you were "hour building" on a student pilot certificate - I am sure it would not be favourable.
If the school was doing things properly they would make you do an FAA PPL as well, or complete the licence verification process, but if you took a JAA PPL it takes the UK CAA 10 days to issue your licence and about 4-6 weeks for the FAA to complete the verification so about 6-8 weeks of paperwork.
Last edited by BigGrecian; 16th Aug 2010 at 23:27.
Reason: spg