Canadian Pilot looking to work in the US
 

Hi there,

I am in process of converting my license to an ATP. I don't know anyone down in the states so I'm looking for some guidance. I live on the West Coast of Canada with 2000TT. How does one get to the majors down in the states? Up here there are set paths through regionals that most people follow. Is it the same down there? Do certain regionals give you a better shot at the majors? Thanks for your advice.

Hi, I've done the conversion process, for ATP you will need to do a course / sim which is ridiculously expensive for what you get. My suggestion is to convert to commercial and have a future regional carrier pay for that course when hired (very common I don't know any regional that doesn't pay for it).

Also, very important: you need your right to work in the USA.

For carriers, there's some with flow through agreement (like westjet encore to westjet mainline) and other with guaranteed interview (like jazz and other AC express carriers). So to answer your question, if you go to Ennvoy, PSA, Piedmont (flow through carriers to AA) you will have a pretty well defined path.

Be ready for a good bump in salary from Canada, but be also ready to pay the Canadian government some taxes on your US income.

Hope this helps :)

Not trying to start a an argument bro. It seems like it's a one-way street with American pilot jobs. How hard is it to get a job up in Canada? Everytime I ask a european or canadian about working in their respective countries, they just say its better over here. There must be something good about living where you grew up, right?

Re:Candien to U.S.
 

You are up against some hurdles. You will have to get a green card and no airline will sponsor you. The US does not consider a pilot as a career in regards to green cards which makes it that much tougher. Don't shoot the messenger on this one! I had a friend try this and he gave up. Your best avenue is to marry a US citizen.

Hey guys,

Thanks for your responses. I am a dual Canadian/US Citizen so I am able to work in the States.

Hey guys, how did you proceed with your logbook :

Did you copy every single canadian hour into a FAA logbook ?
Did you keep your TC logbook and started your FAA logbook at 0
or, third option, did you start a FAA logbook with the first line being your canadian experience forwarded ?

Arturito

Then you're the same as anybody else down here. Get your license converted to a US commercial AMEL. Don't waste the effort/money on an ATP.

Most regionals will hire you and put you through all of the ATP training during new hire training. You'll need all of the aeronautical experience requirements for a US ATP, except you can get the last 25 hours of ME and total time in the sim during regional training. So you can get away with 25 hours ME and 1475 total time.

As to majors, AA owned regionals have a flow path to AA mainline. Other regionals have preferential interviews at UA and maybe DAL. For the most part you can pick your regional, so do your homework.

Answer the question OP. BTW, do you know Billy from Toronto?