Euro Work
 

Hello everyone,

I know this may have been asked before and I am aware of the general laws, but is it possible for an American to fly for an European carrier? I understand that they ask for the right to live and work, is it possible to obtain a work permit?

And before anyone comes out telling me why don’t you fly in the U.S., some guys like me might have other reasons in our lives that require us to make such a jump, especially for those like me with no experience…..

No airline will sponsor you, sorry. Really not that hard for them to find low experience pilots.

Some European / UK business jet operators may be an option for you. Netjets and flexjet are sometimes looking for people. If you had the right to live in uk or EU then you have many more opportunities.

Obviously if you have a pressing personal reason to leave the USA you’ll have to go elsewhere. But purely based on looking from the outside, living in a country which is as large as Europe but where everyone has the same language, ranging from Florida to Alaska and California to Maine there must be plenty of opportunity for a low houred pilot in GA if you’re prepared to move.

in the UK now there is hardly any real GA flying and the entry level apart from instructing are mainly turbo props or light jets multi crew, the days of single crew charters in Senecas or Aztecs for 500 hour CPL holders are long gone, and I suspect that the rest of Europe is much the same.

EDIT : Having typed that a quick (less than 30 seconds) google search found sixty vacancies for pilots just in Alaska. Obviously some may have been filled and some may not match your qualifications / experience. But if you’ve not done it already get a CFI then CFII and build experience doing interesting stuff on the way to 1500 hours and an ATP certificate. Coming to the end of my career I fly with lots of F/Os whose first job is right seat of a B737 who are worried if they can put up with flying a 737/A320 for the next thirty five years. I was lucky enough to start when it was still possible to fly SEL / MEL / turbo prop / light jet on the way to a Medium or Heavy jet in the UK. In the USA you can still do it, make the most of the chance ( that’s a personal opinion of course, other viewpoints are available ).

Since the term right to live and work in Europe is tossed around often, many countries in the EU do give US citizens a work permit but only if they have a job offer in hand. Would an airline in Europe give a job offer in that case people like me could take it and apply for a work permit/visa?

A certain island even decided to cut ties with the rest of the continent, so go figure. People here see immigration as big as a threat as the plague, terrified by some poor bastards in derelict dinguies. Different topic I guess, but seriously, you don't stand a chance.
There is a handful of Americans employed on N registered UPS aircraft ( based in Cologne I believe), but they get manned via the mainline in the US.

I guess you will have to marry these "other reasons" in order to work in Europe ;-)

Unfortunately not, I haven’t seen an airline not include right to work as one of their requirements to apply for low experience roles. Even though it would technically be possible, being a visa sponsor adds extra costs, admins, inconveniences that they simply don’t need to take on.

There are a few airlines (eg. Ryanair) that may be willing to sponsor visas for experienced pilots into certain countries they are struggling to recruit for.

Try Ryanair, but as far as I know they require 1500 hrs minimum and full ATPL for ICAO-ATPLs.
Anyway the work permit gives you the right to live and work in a specific country, not in the entire EU. And the requirement usually is "live and work in the EU".

Only passport holders of EU and Schengen countries have the right to work across these countries. Third country nationals normally just for the country they are employed in.