Having been down this route myself I can confirm all of the points raised by TiltedTomato, however in my experience it is possible to achieve a conversion around the 20 hour mark.
To do this though you must be aware of your final objective of achieving a JAA ME/IR at the start of the process and plan your training accordingly. It is important you are fully aware of the differences between the FAA and JAA way of doing things and address it in your FAA IR training. For example rather than getting radar vectored approaches all the time ask for or go to an uncontrolled field and fly full procedural approaches. If you don’t have the luxury of an NDB in the locality and have the benefit of a G1000 equipped aircraft, practise holds using the ADF pointer on a random fix. Finally and most importantly get used to having a high work load prior to returning to Europe. Once home get as many back seat experiences as you can. This will help you pick up the procedural differences without having the added task of flying an aircraft round a hold on one engine and is a bit kinder on the pocket!
As for the merits of this route I can only say it worked out ok for me. That said I completed my training in the States when the exchange rate was more favourable and there was a clear financial saving along with other benefits. With current the exchange rates I would forgo the added stress of converting and just do a full IR course in the UK.
For the benifit of TiltedTomato
Total Conversion Hours: 24.2 Hrs
Dual ME: 8.9 Hrs
Dual SE: 6.1 Hrs
FNPT1: 6.3 Hrs
Transit & Test: 2.9 Hrs
Last edited by PLINKY DEL MAYO; 12th Feb 2011 at 19:47.