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Student Visas
Many chose to study with a flight school abroad. To do this you are often required to obtain a visa from the country you wish to study in. In Europe most of the foreign students are from other European countries and therefore don’t need a visa because of ETA (European Trade Organization) or the European Union. If you are from outside Europe and wish to fly with a flight school there you should contact the school or the embassy for further information.
In the United States however everyone not holding a green card or being a citizen is required to have a student visa or higher. We here list the different visas you can hold to fly in the Unites States Tourist Visa – 90 days As long as you already have a pilot license and only wish to rent an airplane or take a currency check this is the easiest visa to enter the country. For all European countries it is done by filling out a form on the airplane flying over. This together with documentation that you will leave the country within 90 days (ex. your return ticket) gets you in. You cannot undergo flight training or obtain a pilot license or rating on a tourist visa. And after September 11th 2001 the FAA now forwards your information to the INS (Immigration and Naturalization Services) to makes sure you are legal before issuing a license. M1- Vocational Visa – 1 year and on Many part 141 flight schools accept international students on M1 visas. This is strictly a student visa and is usually obtained for one year at the time as long as you undergo training. It gives you the privilege of living in the United States and studying with the flight school issuing the visa application. Meaning the school has made a guarantee for you to the INS and you can therefore only study with that particular school on that particular visa. You cannot work on an M1 visa; this includes part time work to cover your living. J1 – Foreign Exchange Visa – 2 years J1 is a visa offered by some flight schools through an exchange program. To you this means studying and later working as a pilot. The real difference from an M1 is that you can do practical job training; working in your trained profession to build more experience (building flight hours in other words). It is important to understand this as getting an extra job at McDonalds or any other non-flying place to subsidize your living is a violation and may get you expelled. Practically on a J1 visa you do flight training and are later intended to work as a flight instructor with the school. If you can’t get a job there you will be assisted in finding work elsewhere, but are still guaranteed for by the school issuing the visa and have to report all flying done on a regular basis. The visa is issued for 2 years (24months) and can only be issued ones in a lifetime. Further to qualify you cannot hold any higher then an FAA private pilot license (PPL) and an instrument rating (IR). Not all countries are qualified for the J1 visa. If the flight school you wish to study with issue J1 visas they will tell if you qualify or not. F1 – Academic Visa – 1 year and on This visa is issued by a college or university and covers the length of your study. The benefit this visa has is that after the first year you can work part time to cover your living as long as you stay a full time student. This is done on the discretion of the college/university guaranteeing for your visa. If you want to get a degree in aviation as well as doing flight training it may be an idea to look for a university offering F1 visas. The visa is not renewed after you graduate and will therefore expire. So if you want to build hours flying you also need to keep studying full time. This can be expensive and you don’t build hours very fast. H1B – Foreign Work Visa This is a visa for foreign workers in the Unites States and is issued to your employer for you. The idea behind this visa is to fill the jobs they can’t find Americans to do. The employer has to document the necessity of importing a worker and the application process can be long and hard. In good periods it has been hard for flight schools to get instructors as all American pilots get jobs flying bigger airplanes pretty quick after getting their certificates, and they therefore started applying for H1Bs. As this is written the market is still slow and there are enough American pilots on the market to fill the jobs for the visa to be offered. But there may still be exceptions, and as the market picks up again we will probably see them again. The visa is offered to an employer for an employee; meaning you can only work in the company obtaining the visa for you. 4/29/2004 |
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