Work at home, save the money, and then go there as a tourist for a couple of months. Get a validation of your licence and FLY! If you don’t care about the location go somewhere to the Midwest where you can rent airplanes for less than in FL or CA, and the cost of living is lower too. That’s the only recommendation I have …
@Flyer59 That’s the simplest solution and the one I did last year/this year. The paperwork to get a restricted license is straight forward and can be done within 2-3 months. Flying in the midwest/south can be cheap and there’s still a lot to see. Granted, the landscapes are not as breathtaking as in the west but it’s a great/affordable learning field and I’ll definitely do it again next year.
I also did that a couple of times. Texas, for example, is a great flying place. We did approaches to DFW ina C-150 (with a 150 hp engine!) and flew to great airports with cool Fly-in restaurants. The only thing that I had to get used to was the turbulence which can be pretty strong in summer … and the heat ;-) The plane cost something like $ 30 plus fuel per hour … but that’s some years ago.
No need to go the company set-up / management route (E2 / L1) as that will not allow the applicant to farm himself out to another company for employment.
For flying there is no other way than holidays.
Shorrick_Mk2 wrote:
For flying there is no other way than holidays.
I see what you all mean. Not what I would like (I cannot afford to stay and fly there for long and also I cannot gather as much experience as in case of flying for somebody) but seems like this is the current situation.
This is getting way off topic but I know a guy (a private pilot) who got the green card in AFAIK well under a year, by purchasing a little (completely worthless – I saw the accounts and the products it made) business in the USA, from a retiring owner. A year or two later he was back in Europe…
I have friends with green cards and it’s a real pain if you are not planing to live in the US: you have to pay taxes, explain why you are not there all the time, etc. You can even have problems with getting a normal visitor visa after you’ve had a green card. Also in Europe you are almost forbidden to have bank accounts or trade shares if you have a green card. In general, not the most pleasant situation you might have.
Yes, but you can own an N-reg plane directly without having to use a trustee 
And, if you get unlucky, the video of your head getting chopped off will be hosted on a server with a bit more bandwidth…
That makes things much more attractive, Peter
Vladimir,
As others have said re the immigration situation. Also don’t forget, that what you would like to do implies a two-crew cockpit. Which, in turn, implies a type rating….. you see where this leads. In locations where there are working SEPs e.g. Alaska, Africa, Australia, nobody is going to let you use up valuable space and weight just for fun. Seats are to be filled with paying pax or freight.
All that said, there is another option which some people do: buy a small plane in the US and lease it back to a flight school. Then come over when you like and go flying. AFAIK this is usually done through a company setup, but doesn’t have to be very expensive. With luck, the plane pays for itself (Ahh, I can already see the debate I’m unleashing here !).
Or just come and rent – no visa required for that!
