There is another thing to consider which is that the JAA license expires, as opposed to the FAA certificate which doesn't, going the JAA route means that there will be a trip every year (and the expenditure associated with it) to a JAA training facility to renew your license.

Each JAA country has their own tests. The UK CAA has several testing centers, one of them is in Florida (which is actually just in a conference room at a hotel in Orlando each month.

If you hold any ICAO ATPL, then you don't have to be enrolled in an ATPL theory course to take the exams, aka you can self certify. If you don't hold an ATPL, (you must hold at least a PPL to take the JAA ATPL exams), you must be enrolled in an approved course and have a minimum level of attendance. If you do distance learning, you must finish the whole course and then sit at least 10% of the required hours in residence.

For more info on UK approved testing centers overseas, CAA International Ltd

If you want to see all the schools approved by the UK CAA, look here:
Standards Document 31 Version 107: Organisations Conducting CAA and JAR-FCL Approved Courses of Flight and Ground Training - Interim Document | Publications | About the CAA

There are different providers but many of the schools in the US providing ATPL theory training use someone else's materials under a license agreement, typically through distance learning.

Yes, they do expire, but you don't have to renew it every year. I
You can go up to 7 years without renewing your license before it expires. Beyond that, it expires and you have to go through extra heartache and expense to get it back. So if you are flying on your FAA license, just go once every seven years to renew the JAA license in case you want to keep it valid for the future. Having said that, it is WAAAY more expensive to keep a JAA license current than an FAA license.

Thank you for the correction, I was under the impression that it was a yearly thing from the guys here that always seem to be organizing trips to the EU to renew it. Pain in the rear end though, I personnaly don't think is worth it, unless you are planning to work in the EU market eventually (people are bailing out of that market in droves it seems) But hey, if you have 50K around that you can't possibly think of nothing better to do with it, go for it:rolleyes:

Are they flying on a validation? If so, their license has to stay current, unfortunately. That means a yearly renewal. As for FAA, I do need to keep my "BFR" current; the foreign sim checks don't count. :)

Great info, just what I needed Thanks Zonda!