Licence Verification
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Licence Verification
I'm travelling out to the USA in september to do some general touring. I've done a search 
and I think I'm up to speed with the process of obtaining an FAA PPL on the basis of my UK JAA PPL.
Question I have is timescales for licence and medical validation. The FAA suggest that validation of a medical should be done 90 days in advance...
From the FAA website...
I have 75 days until my intended trip so I'm a bit concerned. Does anyone have experience of actual timescales? or am I up the creek with no paddle 
and I think I'm up to speed with the process of obtaining an FAA PPL on the basis of my UK JAA PPL. Question I have is timescales for licence and medical validation. The FAA suggest that validation of a medical should be done 90 days in advance...
From the FAA website...
Rating or Medical Certificate
A person who is applying for a U.S. rating or medical certificate on the basis of a foreign license must apply for that certificate at least 90 days before arriving at the designated FAA FSDO where the applicant intends to receive the U.S. certificate. This initial application step is the responsibility of the applicant.
A person who is applying for a U.S. rating or medical certificate on the basis of a foreign license must apply for that certificate at least 90 days before arriving at the designated FAA FSDO where the applicant intends to receive the U.S. certificate. This initial application step is the responsibility of the applicant.
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I reckon you might just be ok if you get on it straight away.
You need to download some forms from the web. The first you need to send to the CAA (with some money!). The second, you need to send to the lovely FAA with copies of all your UK docs (and NO MONEY!
) specifiying the Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) in the US at which you would like to collect your licence.
The CAA will contact the FAA to verify that you are whom you claim to be and that you have the qualifications that you claim to have.
As soon as the FAA hear from the CAA, they will send you a verification letter which is valid (so far as I recall!) for six months. Once you have the letter- you then MAKE AN APPOINTMENT with the FSDO which you specified - then you present yourself there at the appointed time with all of your documents AND the FAA letter.
The FSDO will then issue you with a temporary "issued on the basis of" FAA PPL which is valid for 120 days. At some point thereafter (takes a couple of months) you will get a permanent FAA PPL sent to you. This is then vaid forever PROVIDED that the UK Licence on which it was based remains valid.
The FAA won't charge you a penny for any of this! If you've never flown in the USA before - you will quickly discover that America is the land of aviation opportunity. No landing fees, no approach fees, often no parking fees etc.
Their bread is horrible though and their beer sucks - so nowhere is perfect :-)
Have fun!
Julian
You need to download some forms from the web. The first you need to send to the CAA (with some money!). The second, you need to send to the lovely FAA with copies of all your UK docs (and NO MONEY!
) specifiying the Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) in the US at which you would like to collect your licence.The CAA will contact the FAA to verify that you are whom you claim to be and that you have the qualifications that you claim to have.
As soon as the FAA hear from the CAA, they will send you a verification letter which is valid (so far as I recall!) for six months. Once you have the letter- you then MAKE AN APPOINTMENT with the FSDO which you specified - then you present yourself there at the appointed time with all of your documents AND the FAA letter.
The FSDO will then issue you with a temporary "issued on the basis of" FAA PPL which is valid for 120 days. At some point thereafter (takes a couple of months) you will get a permanent FAA PPL sent to you. This is then vaid forever PROVIDED that the UK Licence on which it was based remains valid.
The FAA won't charge you a penny for any of this! If you've never flown in the USA before - you will quickly discover that America is the land of aviation opportunity. No landing fees, no approach fees, often no parking fees etc.
Their bread is horrible though and their beer sucks - so nowhere is perfect :-)
Have fun!
Julian
Blah Blah Blah
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Originally Posted by julian_storey
The FSDO will then issue you with a temporary "issued on the basis of" FAA PPL which is valid for 120 days
Originally Posted by julian_storey
their beer sucks
Sam Adams=great
1812=great
Originally Posted by julian_storey
will quickly discover that America is the land of aviation opportunity
VFR flight following is great!
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Thanks for the replies so far, can anyone recall what the response time of the FAA was?
On the point of the medical, what was the process to get that sorted? Just want to try and have everything covered.
On the point of the medical, what was the process to get that sorted? Just want to try and have everything covered.
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You don't actually need a medical for a based on certificate, and the FSDO were wrong to insist on this in gcolyers case
14 CFR 61.75 (b)(4) is the reference in the FAR's
14 CFR 61.75 (b)(4) is the reference in the FAR's
I sent the letters (forms) to CAA and FAA about 21 December and collected my "based on" in Denver on Feb 26th 2007.
I had had my letter from the FAA in Surrey about 3 weeks prior to that.
(The shame was that Denver didn't have a copy and I had to get Oaklahoma City to fax it to Denver .. but it was all done in a couple of hours).
The Orville and Wilbur club membership card arrived back in Surrey about beginning of April.
DGG
I had had my letter from the FAA in Surrey about 3 weeks prior to that.
(The shame was that Denver didn't have a copy and I had to get Oaklahoma City to fax it to Denver .. but it was all done in a couple of hours).
The Orville and Wilbur club membership card arrived back in Surrey about beginning of April.
DGG
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You don't actually need a medical for a based on certificate, and the FSDO were wrong to insist on this in gcolyers case
14 CFR 61.75 (b)(4) is the reference in the FAR's
14 CFR 61.75 (b)(4) is the reference in the FAR's
Blah Blah Blah
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It is true...if you follow the regs strictly then you don't need an FAA medical. However if the FAA say "you need an FAA mdeical or I ain't giving you the licesne" what are you going to do?
It is not uncommon for them to request an FAA medical.
It is not uncommon for them to request an FAA medical.
If you are operating on a UK Licence then you need a UK medical for that to be valid. As the FAA Licence is issued on the basis of, and that licence must be valid for the FAA one to be valid, then you have a valid medical, the UK one. You do not need an FAA medical.
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I'm currently living up here in NY and it took the CAA less than a week to charge me 36 quid (including the postage time!), but the FAA took about six weeks to process everything and send me back my letter. My impression from speaking to folks at my flying club is that the response time from the FAA is highly variable.
You might not run into trouble with the issue of the temporary certificate with your UK medical, but you might find wherever you are renting the aircraft from might require a FAA one because of stupid insurance policies etc. The 'rental agreement' where I fly stipulates a US medical is required. It might be worth the $100 and one hour of your time getting this done.
The whole process is straightforward, relaxed and everyone always want to talk about flying!
You might not run into trouble with the issue of the temporary certificate with your UK medical, but you might find wherever you are renting the aircraft from might require a FAA one because of stupid insurance policies etc. The 'rental agreement' where I fly stipulates a US medical is required. It might be worth the $100 and one hour of your time getting this done.
The whole process is straightforward, relaxed and everyone always want to talk about flying!
Oh happy days. Denver FSDO did not have any problem with my CAA medical (just copied the deatils from it) and nor did the school in Colorado where did my FR and rented a C-172. they just wanted to see my "Temporary Airman's Cert"
Other people's experience sounds like a problem I had with the Greek's in Crete (their authorities not the flying school) where they categorically refused to acknowledge the existence of the JAR and insisted no Greek License ... no fly.
Other people's experience sounds like a problem I had with the Greek's in Crete (their authorities not the flying school) where they categorically refused to acknowledge the existence of the JAR and insisted no Greek License ... no fly.
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I did the verification thing (again) recently. Admitedly it was via the IAA not the CAA. The whole thing took less than 3 weeks, but then the IAA don't charge for the verification etc. No doubt the processing of the charge will add to the CAA time!
Get it in quick, and you should be ok. You can fax it to the FAA, to avoid postal delays.
When you get the piece of paper from the FAA that you are supposed to take to the FSDO, ring them up to a) make an appointment to see them, and b) to make sure that they have actually received the paper work from Oklahoma.
dp
Get it in quick, and you should be ok. You can fax it to the FAA, to avoid postal delays.
When you get the piece of paper from the FAA that you are supposed to take to the FSDO, ring them up to a) make an appointment to see them, and b) to make sure that they have actually received the paper work from Oklahoma.
dp
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Hi
I followed the procedure (both from FAA and CAA) for verification of my JAR PPL (uk issued) to get a FAA PPL.
I sent my applications by fax at the beginning of NOvember and will be in the US in mid January so I should be on time with my applications even if I was supposed to send them at least 90 days before the day I will collect my FAA PPL.
My question is:
is there any way to be sure that my faxes were received correctly (apart from sending them also to myself to see that the transmission quality is good)?
I do not want to find myself in a situation where I wait and then find out at last minute that the applications forms were never correctly received.
Any phone number or email address to contact the FAA (I suppose that for CAA I should contact Personnel Licencing Dept.).
Thanks
I followed the procedure (both from FAA and CAA) for verification of my JAR PPL (uk issued) to get a FAA PPL.
I sent my applications by fax at the beginning of NOvember and will be in the US in mid January so I should be on time with my applications even if I was supposed to send them at least 90 days before the day I will collect my FAA PPL.
My question is:
is there any way to be sure that my faxes were received correctly (apart from sending them also to myself to see that the transmission quality is good)?
I do not want to find myself in a situation where I wait and then find out at last minute that the applications forms were never correctly received.
Any phone number or email address to contact the FAA (I suppose that for CAA I should contact Personnel Licencing Dept.).
Thanks
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You will get a letter from the FAA confirming that they have your details. This letter you take with you to your nominated FSDO.
You can call Oklahoma on +1 718 995 5450 if you want to check.
You can call Oklahoma on +1 718 995 5450 if you want to check.
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I am going to the USA in July and have just kicked off the verification process. However my medical expires on 30 May - between the expected letter of authorisation from the FAA and my arrival at the FSDO. Technically I will then be going to the States with an authorisation that expired when my medical expired - although of course I will have renewed my medical by then.
There won't be enough time to do the verification after renewing my medical in late May. Does anyone have any experience of how the FAA deals with this situation? I have e-mailed them to ask but don't know whether I'll get an answer.
Ta
NS
There won't be enough time to do the verification after renewing my medical in late May. Does anyone have any experience of how the FAA deals with this situation? I have e-mailed them to ask but don't know whether I'll get an answer.
Ta
NS
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I presume you will be applying for an FAA licence on the basis of your foreign licence.
You should be okay as FAR 61.75(b)(4) only requires you to hold a current medical certifcate, see:
Electronic Code of Federal Regulations:
To be 100% safe when renewing your medical you could chose an AME who is authorised to conduct FAA medicals and get a FAA certificate as well. See Question 2 of the FAA procedures manual:
FSIMS Document Viewer
You should be okay as FAR 61.75(b)(4) only requires you to hold a current medical certifcate, see:
Electronic Code of Federal Regulations:
To be 100% safe when renewing your medical you could chose an AME who is authorised to conduct FAA medicals and get a FAA certificate as well. See Question 2 of the FAA procedures manual:
FSIMS Document Viewer
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Is there certain FSDO offices that have a history of not accepting a national medical?
There was me thinking I had done all that was neccessary to guarantee my Bahamas trip in April and this springs up.
I intended to make an appointment at the Orlando office.
DO.
There was me thinking I had done all that was neccessary to guarantee my Bahamas trip in April and this springs up.
I intended to make an appointment at the Orlando office.
DO.
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You won't have a problem in Orlando. The guys there are great, Clifford Baggett is real gentleman. I added Language proficiency to my CPL while I was waiting for a couple of friends to pick up their 61.75 certificates and he was very efficient, friendly and knowledgeable.