Noe,
It sounds like you applied for a Foreign Licence Validation Certificate using form 26-0701. The FLVC should be issued on the spot when you visit a regional office in Canada.
By foreign-based PPL I mean a PPL which is annotated to state that it was issued on the basis of a foreign licence. It functions as an independent licence and ratings may be added to it. It may be ‘upgraded’ to a standard PPL by taking the PPAER written exam and passing the flight test. It may be clearer if the relevant subsections of standard 421.26 are copied here.
Subsection 8 is for a foreign-based PPL.
Subsection 9 is for a standard PPL.
(8) Licence Issued On the Basis of Foreign Licence
(a) An applicant who is the holder of a Private or higher pilot licence -aeroplane issued by a Contracting State shall be considered:
(i) to have met the ground school instruction requirement; and
(ii) to have met the written examination requirement and the flight test requirement, provided that the foreign licence was not issued on the basis of a licence from another State, and that the applicant:
(A) has met the flight time requirements specified in subsection (4);
(B) has obtained a minimum of 90% in the written examination Student Pilot Permit or Private Pilot Licence for Foreign and Military Applicants, Aviation Regulations (PSTAR); and
(C) has completed, as pilot in command or co-pilot in aeroplanes, a minimum of 5 take-offs and 5 landings within the 6 months preceding the date of application for the Canadian licence.
(b) The licence shall be annotated by the Minister to indicate that it was issued on the basis of the foreign licence.
(c) The Minister shall remove the annotation from the licence, provided that the applicant has successfully completed:
(i) the written examination requirements (PPAER); and
(ii) the skill requirement.
(9) Credits for Foreign Applicants
(a) An applicant who holds a Private or higher pilot licence – Aeroplane issued by a contracting state and who does not wish to obtain a licence issued on the basis of the foreign licence, may be considered by the Minister to have met the ground school instruction requirement.
(b) An applicant who holds a Private or higher pilot licence – Aeroplane issued by a contracting state other than Canada and who meets the flight time requirements specified in subsection (4) is considered to have met the experience requirements.
(c) An applicant who does not hold a Private or higher pilot licence – Aeroplane issued by a contracting state may be credited foreign dual and solo aeroplane flight training time and aeroplane ground school time towards the knowledge and experience requirements for the issue of a Private Pilot Licence – Aeroplane, if the applicant provides certification from the holder of a Flight Instructor Rating – Aeroplane that all ground and flight training exercises have been satisfactorily reviewed.
The word “validation” and “licence” (or “permit”) do not mean the same thing in the Canadian aviation regulations. This has relevance in terms of the recent experience requirements for example: the Canadian ones do not apply to an FLVC. The FLVC is covered by regulation 401.07 and standard 421.07 (add 20 to the regulation for the corresponding standard).
The Canadian process seems pretty fast, I’ve already gotten an email explaining that I’ll be issued the documents once I submit certified copies or visit a TC office with the originals.
Certainly much easier than the FAA process which requires validation with the CAA.
There is no question that, for aliens, training for Canadian ratings and licences is more straight-forward than the equivalent under the US system. Particularly so for foreign-licence holders. The main difference is the period required for the medical certificate to be issued but that can be completed prior to embarking for Canada. While Transport issues licences and ratings within 90 days, temporary privileges are available immediately after a successful flight test. It works the same way in the US. The licence and rating processing time does delay conversion to US equivalents. Licence verification is normally emailed by Transport to the Airmen Certification Branch within a week.
Done for the purpose of obtaining a US certificate or rating, via the BASA–IPL, it a question of personal preference whether the trade-off is worthwhile. The licence issuance time, follow-up trip, and additional US conversion exams, is the price paid to avoid the hassle and expense of security threat assessments, an embassy interview and student visa, 18 hours per week of attendance at a US school [8 CFR 214.2 (m)(9)(iii)], and practical tests billed at nearly twice the Canadian rate. Each administrative step for the US also entails a delay making this a non sequitur criticism.
Qalupalik wrote:
The foreign-based PPL, issued on the basis of a foreign licence, requires applicants to have (standard 421.26— link):
met the flight time requirements for a Canadian PPL,
obtained at least 90 per cent in the PSTAR written exam, and
completed as PIC/P2 (not PUT) at least 5 takeoffs and landings within the 6 months preceding the application.
Qalupalik, when you refer to foreign based canadian PPL, do you mean:
- a standalone PPL obtained via credit from the foreign PPL (which I would need to get the seaplane rating)?
- a validation of a foreign PPL?
I’ve applied for the latter, and my understanding is that once I show the originals to the TC office in Canada, they’d issue me something that allows me to fly for a year, without any of the requirements you mention. Am I wrong?
When reading 421.26, I have the impression that it relates to an issue of a canadian PPL based on a foreign licence. Is a validated foreign licence (what I applied for) a different thing?
Would I need to take a te
DTO can only be established in the EASA Member States.
I have looked into flying and getting ratings in Canada (Qualupalik is award of that :)). Unfortunately, it is not as straightforward as in the US.
The issuance of the TC license that takes 6 weeks and the Canadian medical are annoyances.
If some Canadian school registered as EASA DTO for seaplane rating, it would be much easier !
WRT travel between the US and Canada by GA: I had planned on doing that with a European friend who traveled to the US on the ESTA / Visa Waiver program three years ago. He contacted his local US embassy (Vienna in his case) and got the answer in writing that the initial arrival into the US had be on CAT, but side trips to Canada (and Mexico, etc) were allowed by GA. However, IIRC, the stipulation was that
a) he had to re-enter the US and then make his final departure again via CAT
b) the time spent outside the US did not reset the clock on the 90 day rule
These rules are fluid, so best check again.
PS: in the end we didn’t get to test this, as it turned out the plane I was flying (renting) didn’t have a radio station license. These are not required for the US anymore, but are for Canada. We ended up flying to Bellingham, WA and driving from there to Vancouver. No worries for him leaving and re-entering the US on his ESTA via a land border.
Transport does not require verification by the foreign authority. The FLVC should be issued on the spot at a regional office. For seaplane training in BC I will relay the venerable Chuck Ellsworth’s long-standing recommendation of Randy Hanna (link).
The only poor sport in the process is Industry Canada which requires a Canadian radio operator certificate (restricted), with aeronautical qualification, while operating a Canadian aircraft radio other than when under training. The ROC-A is issued by post and requires a short multi-choice written exam. There may be an exception for FLVC holders: see contact details for IC at the end of appendix F to RIC-21 (link). Otherwise do the pragmatic thing and ignore this requirement. Canada cuts out most of the nonsense used in RTF by VFR traffic: see Navcanada’s VFR Phraseology guide (pdf link).
As you are considering a seaplane rating it makes more sense to apply for a Canadian PPL. This is because ratings cannot be included in an FLVC. The PPL comes in foreign-based and standard versions depending on whether a flight test will be attempted and both require a Canadian category 1 or 3 medical certificate. It takes Transport about six weeks to issue the medical so to speed things up use one of the 48 Civil Aviation Medical Examiners based in Europe—10 in UK and 14 in France—whose contact details are in Transport’s CAME database (link). Here is a map of them (link). Most will do a combined Canadian and Part-MED medical exam which cuts down on the number of mucky paws poking at your privates.
The foreign-based PPL, issued on the basis of a foreign licence, requires applicants to have (standard 421.26— link):
The Canadian PPL still requires 5 hours instrument time under instruction which is a typical stumbling block for newcomers. The recent experience requirement may be satisfied in Canada under an FLVC or a student pilot permit. Any flight training unit can arrange the latter which, subject to a 50 CAD expedited processing fee, can be issued on the spot by any of Transport’s regional offices. Once the above three requirements are met any regional office will issue the licence on the spot. The foreign-based Canadian PPL is actually independent of the foreign licence. For the standard PPL the written exam must be a PPAER instead of a PSTAR and a flight test is required. In Canada written exams require demonstration of medical fitness and flight tests require an appropriate valid medical certificate.
If you do apply for a Canadian licence then a multi-engine rating could be included without a flight test subject to your having flown 50 hours PIC on class in the 12 months preceding application. The rating is also thrown in for free for candidates who acquired one on a foreign licence in the recent 12 months (ie no 50 hour PIC requirement) but this won’t apply in your case. The logging rules are almost exactly the same as in UK. Further, if you have a Part-FCL CPL then, for essentially the same effort, you could skip the PPL and go straight to a standard CPL. This sounds excessive but can be done in half a week once a category 1 medical is in hand, with a bit more on the side to revise for the fairly straight-forward commercial written exam. Either licence, and any included ratings, may be converted to a US equivalent under the terms of the Canada–US BASA–IPL (pdf link). This route avoids the hassle and expensive of TSA security threat assessments, student visas, excessive DPE fees, and US practical tests.
As I have already strayed from your original enquiry I might as well continue. A second benefit of potential interest to you as an ME CRI is that a Canadian CPL confers some flight instruction privileges. Among these, as detailed in 425.21(5) of the standards, is the ability to give ab initio multi-engine instruction. If you held the appropriate IR you could also, subject to experience requirements in 425.21(9), give some instruction towards a Canadian IR. Up to 15 hours of the latter instruction ought to be creditable towards a Part-FCL IR under the competence-based pathway. See appendix 6, section Aa para 6(a)(i)(B)(ii) [single-engine] and 6(b)(i)(B)(ii) [multi-engine], to Part-FCL.
Thanks, I’m aware of the issue (Qualupalik wrote another of his excellent posts here) .
Still unclear how you can prove you left from the US (I have global entry).
Reading the regulation, it’s still unclear to me if you can reenter the US anytime from a contiguous territory provided you arrived to the US via CAT no longer 90 days before, but having initially left the US to a non-continuous territory:
- CAT: Go to the US
- CAT: Fly to a non-contiguous territory (e.g. Europe)
- CAT: Fly to Canada
- GA: Entrer US via GA.
I’d probably focus my efforts on Canada though. I can do side trips within the US fairly easily off business trips to NYC.
Re flying to US
Many Canadian planes may be insured for the US, but to enter yourself on the visa waiver you’ll need an I-94 which has to got via scheduled airline or on the ground. I know this because I had to drive to the US border on the morning of flying there because no-one in my flight school knew that (why would they, ther’e all Canadians!) and it came up by chance in a telephone conversatIon with the US airport!
