Maybe the UK guys will be fine and I was unlucky.
Any particular reason you need to get the fingerprinting done in the UK? You are a "category 3 alien" which means you can start training as soon as the TSA acknowledges receipt of your fingerprints and processing fee. If you fly to the US and get your (electronic) fingerprints taken there ASAP, you will most likely find that the TSA has acknowledged receipt (and thus, given permission to start training) before you've slept off your jet lag.
If you're a "category 1 or 2 alien" (training for a type rating for an aircraft > 12.500 lbs MTOW) you will have to wait until the full assessment is over, which may take up to 30 days. In those cases it makes sense to get the fingerprinting done in the UK. But not for a "category 3 alien".
I'm training in the UK in my own Nreg plane...with a UK based CFII...but I will probably need to go to the US for the check ride I suppose.. That will require a new training request (and M1 visa)...but at least finger prints will already on record!
FlightSafety at Farnborough have told me they currently have no approved collectors and referred me to Oxford....I have emailed and tried calling them with no response, but in any case it is actually easier for me to fly to Stockholm where Notdic Mobile Fingerprinting will take my prints in the airport while I wait for my return flight!
Nordic Mobile Fingerprinting is run as a sideline business by Brad Stowe - an American corporate pilot based in Sweden....his details are on the TSA's Alien Flight Student Program website: [email protected] / +46 70 242 84 47.....he will travel pretty much anywhere with travel expenses paid (plus a slightly higher fee)...in fact he is going to Southampton on the 14th Sept (but that doesn't work for me)
FlightSafety at Farnborough have told me they currently have no approved collectors and referred me to Oxford....I have emailed and tried calling them with no response, but in any case it is actually easier for me to fly to Stockholm where Notdic Mobile Fingerprinting will take my prints in the airport while I wait for my return flight!
That is pretty well the response I got although FS had collectors they just couldn't fit me in for months. Oxford showed no interest in helping whatsoever.
even though EASA FCL has reduced the case for being N-reg.
Don't you mean reduced the case for holding only an FAA licence. The point of N-reg remains clear - maintenance.
