From Irish EASA back to UK license
 

Morning guys and girls. Long story short, had a UK ATPL, changed it to an Irish EASA, now want/need to convert this back to UK ATPL. Looks like I have until the end of the year to do this. If anybody has recently gone through the process, I have a couple of questions.......

1. Get the uk medical sorted.
2. Do the application ppw
3. Wait

Remarkably, the process is pretty simple. Just long waits between each stage of the process and if you need the UK licence I recommend you gat started asap.

rgds

Definitely don't wait until the end of the year.
I'm in the process now.
Do you have a tame AME who's UK CAA approved? There are slightly different processes depending on when you last did a UK CAA medical.
Wrestling with Cellma will age you immensely and will probably bump your blood pressure up.
The website isn't super clear. EASA to CAA
I ended up paying to get the medical records sent over as well as doing a new medical. The new medical was easy (after wrangling Cellma).
Your CAA reference number is your old number without the FCL bit. Eg. 123456A. Hours etc refer to the last UK CAA medical you did.
Medical About £300, fee to transfer medical £109 (I think), fee to transfer lic about £330.
Scan your passport, current EASA licence and medical and get them certified. I used my AME. You can use your chief pilot etc. The CAA's site has the wording required.

The good news is that you keep both licences (being a "returner" isn't the same as before Brexit when you were forced to "give away" your licence in order to obtain the one from the country you were transferring to)
It does take time, so don't leave it to the last minute.

Technically you can leave it to 2359 on 31/12/3022 to submit your application and you will get your U.K. licence back. Eventually.

I thought (because i didn’t immediately need it) that I’d wait a few months so the “rush” would be over and it would be quick and simple.

NO

you need to badger the CAA constantly. They don’t tell you if there’s an issue. If there is an issue you get dumped to the bottom of the pile without being told you’re being dumped to the bottom of the pile or what.

its an arse of a process that costs a lot of blood sweat and tears. That being said the call handlers without exception have been immensely helpful, friendly and courteous.

anecdote time. My favourite was when I had my U.K. medical redone (despite paying £110 to “piggyback” my uk medical on my EASA medical) I was told to reply to an email sent to me by the CAA to tell them that I had now renewed my uk medical and could they please take my licence out of the pending pile and in to the live pile. I was told by a CAA licence official to email the CAA licensing department to move my application from box a to box b. I didn’t ask why said person couldn’t just do it as they worked in that department.

Thanks guys. I’ve got a current EASA medical but not from the UK. My UK medical hasn’t been renewed for over 5 years, well over 5 years.
Do I need to do an initial UK Class 1 again?? 💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰

https://www.caa.co.uk/commercial-ind...alent-licence/

https://www.caa.co.uk/Commercial-ind...d-from-the-UK/

https://www.caa.co.uk/media/nn3be5xc...ce-holders.pdf

Good luck! My understanding is that if more than five years out of date but you are current EASA you don’t need to do an initial but can regain CAA by doc transfer (SRG1217. Check the flow chart attached). Do some searching - there’s already plenty of info on this on this site.

Anyone have any educated (😀) guesses how many UK pilots are still out of work post covid? Only reason for asking was a flight deck discussion about UK licence and the right to live and work etc as companies stagger back to normal and potentially grow

Just starting the ridiculous process to obtain a national U.K. licence… would anyone happen to have a copy of the U.K. authorisation certificate for AME Dr Peter Orton (recently retired) ? Apparently I need this to apply for a U.K. class one medical based on my current EASA one.

Thanks in advance.

just gonna tag on here with the following question:

Is it possible to apply for the UK CAA licence first and leave the medical (in my case a full initial as I have never held a UK medical before) until later his year, early next year? UK licence can obviously not be used until medical has been done, but that would be fine in my case.

My experience is that CAA won’t even look at the licence application until the medical is in place. I did the ppw for licence and medical at the same time, but nothing happened about the licence until the medical cert had been issued.

HtH

The entire system is so needlessly complicated. Why do WE pay for licence fees when we do all the bloody work filling out forms and hunting down pointless documents!?

I have applied for a UK license and medical too. I am finally getting some value for the cost inflated UK initial I did 5 yrs ago and eventually converted to an EASA. I now don't have to do a UK initial having already held one in the pre-independence era

On the flip side its true they will not touch your license application until your medical has been issued

- I applied first week of may
- a week later they emailed that there was an issue with a document, I got it sorted in 2 days
- they replied 2 weeks later to acknowledge receipt
- last week i got an email saying my application status was at "received" ... 2 months after applying, and this is just the medical

Ain't nothing happening fast. Meanwhile jobs are opening requiring a uk license to apply

Do I correctly get the impression that the only practical way of getting the UK medical back, is to do an in person renewal medical, and not try to convert the non UK EASA medical?

I'm at the same stage of having paid for conversion of the EASA medical (UK ame), got a "received" email and nothing more after about 6 weeks. No requests from CAA for more documents, such as ame certificates or ECGs, and frankly it would be totally impractical to source these anyway, but I get the feeling I'm in the "ignore" pile.

TT

In person renewal if possible would probably be quicker. I did the medical conversion but had only been away from CAA for a very short time so not many gaps to fill.

When I did mine back in 2020 medical wouldn't/couldn't/can't speak to licencing. Medical insisted I didn't have one (they had issued it) and then said my certificate was out of date, so I couldn't get a licence - they had been looking at the first line 'single pilot ops'. Took almost a year to sort that, by which time the medical had really expired....

Want to share my experience on here because I got my FCL before the Medical by about 6 weeks. Long story short, I first submitted the application for the medical and then the application for the FCL 2 weeks later. The Medical department requested additional supporting documents regarding my medical history, which I provided. Between them acknowledging receipt of these documents and issuing the medical certificate, there was a delay of about 2 months. In the interim, the Licensing department dispatched the licence without me having the Medical Certificate even approved.

But who keeps a copy of the form med 160 and 161 from each year, and all the ecgs and audiograms? I know I didn't, and nor was it offered for my keeping, at the renewals. Surely they should get it directly from the IAA, where all the good stuff they desire is filed?

Send an email to the AME receptionist for each year you require, they will have all documents. I got all forms required by the CAA from them. They keep everything from the form you filled out on arrival to ECG results.

Not so easy when the AME no longer practices!