FAA conversion, IFR rating

[Fred5612]

Hello,

I am in a bit of a strange situation. I am an international student who just completed his FAA PPL in the States. However, during my stay I also applied for a Green Card and long story short, it's not reccomendable that I try to re-enter the States on a student visa until I receive my permanent residence in about a year from now (no idea why but my lawyer said so).

I would like during this year to continue my flight training and gain at least an IFR rating. Considering the fact that I am very open to travel, can someone reccomend me a country/flight school where:

-The conversion from FAA PPL to local is relatively fast and painless (Canada is the only one I know for sure that has somewhat of an agreement with the US).
-The flight school costs are not exhorbitant.

Considering that I live in Europe and all the flight schools close to where I live ask for unreasonable amounts of money, I'd like to hear some opinions or thoughts from this forum. Thank you and sorry in advance for my noob-ness.

[ChickenHouse]

Why do you want to convert (or do you mean validate) your license? Just stay with the FAA PPL and gain experience by flying N-reg aircraft. AFAIK the war against pilots being EU citizen and holding foreign PPL only has not reached the point where they forbid flying on that license.

If you are short on budget just gain experience and postpone IR for later in the US. And yes, with US immigration authorities, it may be unwise to enter the US during Greencard processing, but the American Way may be easy - simply approach the relevant authorities with your story and ask ... As EU voting cattle we tend to forget that other governments may work for their (potential) citizens ;-).

[alex90]

Hi Fred,

You might be able to complete your IR with a CFII based here (depending on your TSA status - but assuming that you've already got your pilot' certificate...) There are a few that have websites, and I would be surprised if you were unable to find one near you!

Good Luck!
Alex

[27/09]

The FAA to New Zealand licence conversion process is still fairly painless as far as I know. It might be worth shot if you want to travel a bit further a field. There's some good schools around.

[Fred5612]

Hi all, and thank you for your kind answers. As someone mentioned above I don't necessarily have to validate/convert my license as I am perfectly happy with the FAA (since I want to live in the US and everything). I've looked online and placed a few calls but so far I've been unable to find a flight school outside the US that offers FAA training and licenses, if someone here knows such a school you would be doing me an immense favor.

It seems that FAA training in the EU has been discontinued as I called 4 flight schools (iflyFAA, Aviation Academy, Orbifly and Azure Sky) and none of them offer those services anymore - they were all permanently closed/closing.

At this point I would be inclined to convert my license into a Canadian one and get my IR rating over there.

I do have one more question: I know that the Canadian medical takes about 1 month to be completed and luckily I can take that in Europe, does anyone know how long it takes for the rest of the conversion process?

[avionimc]

Try :
AZUR SKY : your FAA IFR training at your place everywhere in Europe or

EcoFlight.net Training Sàrl or

ORBIFLY FLIGHT SCHOOL

Or just find an independent/private FAA CFII/MEII near you. Good luck!