TwinTurboPilot

Well I know with our friends south of the border it is almost imposible to get a job if your not a citizen of their country. Oh but hey there alot of them who are not US residents live in Mexico come fly over here and do it for slave wages as well. I know of a crew and have confirmed it that flys a brand new N registred lear 45xr, FO makes $20,000 US and Captain $36,000 and thats flying over 500 hours a year. Makes me sick

AVIATORCFI

First it was GOJET,MESA etc. pilots , now it is Foreign pilots. Some of you need a real good medical check up.

skull

Double Dog Dare,

There is "some sort of reciprocity" as far as getting EU licenses for example. Among other things, it takes hard work. None of the foreign guys you might come through here have had practically no cost license conversion, and have stepped right into an aviation job. Most of them if not all have brought something to the US and have worked extremely hard to earn the privilege of leaving their "American dream" today. And no we did not have a job waiting for us in the US, we just worked hard to get some education which in turn made us more competitive than others and we were hired by US employers. We then became permanent residents and later US citizens. Then, and only then, were we able to switch to a career in aviation. Unfortunately, no one can expect to fulfill his dream in a foreign country right away. However, all of us have something in common, we knew that we had to earn it and there is plethora of American guys all over the world who have exactly done that. So, you too can do it over there if you have the patience and dedication, but like the rest of us you will have to bring something to the table as we all did here. If you decide not to do it, then you will have to accept the fact that competing for jobs here is the only way to go, and trust me employers do not favor foreign pilots against the American ones during interviews.
By the way, no country except you to start from square one as far as licenses conversion but none of them will give you a blank check and tell you Mr. pilot welcome aboard we were waiting for you, here is your new license, here's your right to live and work here and here's the job that was waiting for you. Not even the US!

Kenny

What an absolute load of xenophobic bollocks. What do you think these people do, turn up at the borders saying let me in I'm a pilot??

You can't decide to just migrate to the US and get in. To get a job with any 121 carrier in the US, you have, at the very least got to have a work permit. You only get one of those if you're applying for a Green Card because either you've got family here or you're married to a US citizen.

You want a job in any of those countries? Get the right to work and live there, then convert your license and then apply for a job. It's no different than the US.

skull

You are absolutely right, but unfortunately history has proven itself that even a good medical checkup is no cure for lack of tolerance.

tzadik

while i dont think its as cut and try as double dog stated, hes not entirely incorrect. no disrespect to anyone that works the system, thats what its there for. i do believe a US pilot looking to fly in europe would jump thru more hoops than someone coming westbound. im sure there's reasons for it.

id guess theres more brits working at american than americans working at british.

AVIATORCFI

The bigest obstacle would be conversion of FAA license to JAA than get work permit. However that should not be a reason for US born pilot to blame so called foreign pilot who most likely happenes to be a US citizen for his unemployment.

tzadik

I strongly believe (albeit with limited understanding of the process) that if you took a German national and a US national and crossed them up, the German would be first to achieve licenser, legal work status, and employment with less of a headache and more money left in his wallet.

I find it almost naïve to think that the US isn’t more inviting to foreigners and their skills than other countries (European nations in particular). I don’t believe the suggestion itself is politically incorrect, but at the same time I roundly reject blaming those that achieve employment in this country through the proper channels for ones lack of employment. There’s a system in place and if said system is properly worked to achieve a goal, don’t blame the user but rather the system itself.

I guess it goes both ways though… I know trained, licensed, and practicing physicians in other countries jump through and entire circus of hoops to be able to practice medicine in the US. I flew with a gent whose wife was a doctor in South Africa; he mentioned that when she moved here they practically made her re-attend all of medical school in order to practice.

olympic

Exactly my thoughts.

Double Dog Dare
Why don't we just kill these people, I think that would be a good thing. Your either fascist or an idiot with a post like this. I am an American currently working in Europe and I spent about 1 year of my life trying to get the JARs and Working Permit to fly here and none has ever said to me "Your a Foreigner get the out".

You should concentrate on trying to help the US AIRLINE INDUSTRY and maybe RAISE the BAR for your company or fellow collegues instead of throw all these stupid comments out regarding foreigners, if your idol is Hitler your about 66 years late.

I find it more sick that you accept wages like 20,000 US dollars to fly a plane around .. work on getting that fixed.

PS- Great first post, you have made us all proud.

KoruPilot

You can't just walk up to the FAA and get a licence mate, not if you want to fly for reward.

You CAN get a licence conversion to fly privately, or ferry a US registered aircraft, but if you want to be able to be employed you will need to do the FAA ATPL written and a flight test. Up until recently, if you are on an FAA ticket, all you'd have to do for Canada is take the written, no flight test. That may actually still be the case.

Other than Europe it's about the same, ATPL written followed by a check ride with the people who hired you.

Apparently you have not been to Asia or the Middle East where there are loads of Americans flying. If you took the ratio of foreigners working in the States to Americans working as foreigners for overseas airlines you might be surprised.

I'm wondering what the real problem here is. I've managed to get job's in all sorts of countries who were nice enough to have me (never the US mind you), and wrote the ATPL exams for each one. Perhaps, instead of bagging people, you might want to just try a little harder.Or maybe do just that before writing a post like this again.