Originally Posted by
NEDude
Once that is done they will send you your medical with your Canadian "file number" printed on it. The file number will be what is used to identify you for everything else in the process; it also becomes you license number. You then fill out a form that gives TCCA the right to request your records from the FAA. After TCCA gets your FAA records you then can schedule your conversion written test (25 or 30 questions - can't remember). There is a flight school in Winnepeg that has an online study course for the conversion test. I paid $100 (IIRC) and spent three days studying for the test. Head up to Canada and get some passport pictures taken and then take the test. The test took me 15 minutes at the TCCA office in Vancouver (the one on Burrard Street in downtown). I left the TCCA with my logbooks as they needed something to prove you met their ATPL minimums. Used a credit card to pay for the test, license and $30 for each type rating I wanted to transfer over. About two months after I took the test I got my Canadian ATPL in the mail. It looks like a passport complete with a passport photo identification page. You can pay to have your logbooks FedEx'd back or you have to go pick them up.
Thanks for the info. I just did my Canadian medical yesterday. Are you saying I can't send in the application for certificate validation and ADB until they reply to me about my medical?
Or is the number which you are referring to no the paperwork the doctor filled out?
I'm in Hong Kong and would like to send this off now so I can take the test in March... If I have to wait for them to reply about the medical, I don't think I will be able to take the test in March. (It says it could take 90 days to verify type ratings.)
EDIT: I reread the instructions... I should be able to get the number from the doctor and send it in right away. Any other advice would be great!
I'm doing it also to have a back up for the FAA... and my wife is Canadian, so the right to work thing could be sorted pretty easily. Thanks for the info.