Work in Africa with SA CPL vs FAA
I'm still trying to figure out which training path would suit me best and right now after a pretty extensive research I narrowed my options down to the US and South Africa. The thing is that I'm not a US citizen, so if I go the US route and finish the training there I will be holding an FAA license with no right to work on N-reg aircraft. After reading through almost every topic in this sub-forum I figured fresh foreign pilots with some 250 hours actually do have a chance at scoring some work "north of Limpopo". From what I've read, it most likely will be a C210 job or something even smaller, but what typically happens next? How many hours am I gonna need to make a transition to say B1900 given that I want to get as much multi engine time during the training as possible? I understand it massively depends on luck and current situation but give me at least an approximate figure...
So with all this in mind, getting an FAA license doesn't make much sense right? I mean If there ain't gonna be any jobs available for me in the US and I would have to come to Africa in search of a job anyway it's better to get training closer to it?
And how are those hours flown in Africa usually seen outside? I mean my current job involves communicating with all sorts of pilots, mostly Russian, a lot of them have decades of experience flying things like AN-12 in Africa, some of them say they don't even list their African time in their resumes now, why? I mean I kinda see why, hearing their stories about flying humanitarian cargo with muzzles sticking out of the crates, but how valuable time earned in Africa will actually be when I eventually start looking for work somewhere else? Does anyone have this kind of experience?
And do you think I'm onto something here or should I just go get an FI rating and instruct like everyone else? Any advice is appreciated... Thanks