It is shown on your license. Under JARs, JAA countries other than the country which issued your license are not obliged to recognise ICAO IR conversions. So if you do an FAA IR, then do the 15 hours to convert that to a UK IR, France (for example) do not have to recognise your UK IR for flying F-registered aircraft (whereas they would have to recognise a JAR IR). At least, that's the way I understand it - I've got no practical experience. In practice, though, I doubt it would make much difference to your employability, but others on this forum would know better than me.
Isn't it possible to do a UK JAR IR in the US? I believe the skills test itself has to be done in the UK, but I think it's possible to do most of the training in the US at an approved school, so the financial side might not be quite as clear-cut as you make out.
Good luck!
FFF
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