I’m an international student currently studying in the US in High School, however I know that it is practically impossible to get a job in the U.S. without a green card and citizenship, so I think I’ll just do my FAA here and the EASA in Sweden and maybe come back to the US on a EB-2 NIW visa after I gain some experience. However I wonder, does anyone know how the job market is in Europe and if it’s hard to get a job in EU? and my second question is, Is it really practically impossible to get a job as a pilot without a green card/citizenship or are there any ways?
Since you’re still in high school, we first recommend you completing college before pursuing flight training. At that point, you need to ask yourself where you want to end up. If it’s flying for a U.S. Airline, you need to secure a green card first. Then do all your ratings here through the FAA. If you want to fly in Europe, then go there and do all your training in the country you wish to pursue employment. Transferring ratings is possible but it’s costly and can be rather complicated.
Thank you for the quick answer… my end goal is to work in the US for a major airline but that will be hard. However, there is a flight school in the U.S. that has a partnership with a flight school in my home country (Sweden). So I would do my FAA CPL and everything here in the US and maybe work as an instructor and then I would go to Sweden to complete my EASA license. This means that I can work in the EU at a young age and gain experience and then I can come back to the US and apply for a national interest waiver (EB2-NIW) green card. Because for me now I believe it’s really hard to get a green card, especially through employment because there are no airlines hiring foreigners.
I also I want to add that I haven’t decided if I want to go college or flight school and do my degree online after. (I’m a senior in high school so I’m still deciding.)
There are some schools even universities that allow students to work as an instructor for about 1-2 years on a CPT and an OPT which are extensions on the F-1 visa which basically means that you can work with something related to the area of your studies.