Flight instructor program for international students
 

Hi all greetings from Hong Kong!

Given the current situation, I have been informed by Cathay Pacific that they will not hire any cadets in the foreseeable future. But I really love flying and want to be a pilot in the future. However there is almost no opportunity to do that except entering the cadet program in Hong Kong. Therefore I am considering becoming a flight instructor and accumulate around 1500 of flight hours then apply the direct entry for airlines later. I have previously flown in Australia with 35hrs of dual and 3hrs of solo time using a Diamond DA40. And I would like to ask a few questions.

1. First and the most important question. Are there any recommendations for flight school in the US? I have searched a tonnes of flight schools from Florida, California, Oregon etc. on Google but I need some actual reviews from people.
   
2. As far as I know, working in the US as a flight instructor after obtaining CFI/CFII will require a F-1 visa instead of a M-1. But I believe that not all flight schools are eligible to issue the F-1 visa right?
   
3. Based on my research, an instructor with CFII can get 800-1000hrs per year. Is that the real case? And how much would be the salary?
   
4. Based on my previous flying experience, the advertisement posted by the flight schools are usually not the real deal and the actual length of the courses will be much longer with a higher cost too. Any experience can be shared about the cost and the length of time from zero to CFII?
   

Thank you all and stay safe! Hope that we will meet one day in the sky :)

1. Suggest you post your list of schools and get feedback on each. I'm not sure if there are any really "good" ones but there are certainly ones to avoid.
2. Correct. Only SAA in San Diego, HAA near Portland OR, and a few schools in Florida (AFAIK) have F-1 approval. I believe there is a list on the DHS website.
3. I did about 750hrs in a year without trying very hard. A contemporary of mine hustled and did about 1200. Pay was OK before the virus - $40k a year or so, enough to scrape by on. This may no longer be the case.
4. Good question. I think quite a few of the delays were due to flight schools being overrun with students and not having enough aircraft / instructors. Examiner availability was an issue too. These factors may have improved in the post-virus world. Ballpark, if you work hard and have all the resources (aircraft, instructors, examiners, weather) you can go from PPL to MEI in about a year, but safer to plan on 18 months.