Converting your foreign private pilot license (PPL) to a FAA license

After getting my PPL license a few months ago from CAAM in Malaysia, I decide to apply for a ‘piggy-back’ license with US FAA PPL license. This will allow me to fly any N-registered (US registered) aircraft.

Some of the reasons why converting make sense:

1. To legally fly a N-registered plane, you need to have a FAA issued PPL. Unlike a driving license, your rights to fly a foreign registered plane require you to have a PPL issued by the country of registration of that aircraft. Across the globe, N-registered plane constitute a large percentage of all planes worldwide and you can easily find a plane in Singapore or Malaysia that is N-registered.
2. FAA ‘piggy-back’ is one of the easiest to obtain and to use the license, your only requirement is to do a ‘check-ride’ with a FAA FI every 2 years and to ensure your medical and CAAM license is valid.

So, here’s the steps you need to do:

1. Submit a form to CAAM to apply for a CAAM license verification (reason for doing so is because once you submit your FAA application, they will reach out to CAAM to confirm what you’ve stated is true and your CAAM PPL is valid)
2. Submit an application to FAA (use Google to search for the form) stating that you want to apply for Foreign PPL Validation.
3. FAA usually respond fairly quickly so I will suggest you make sure Step 1 is completed before moving to Step 2.
4. FAA will send an email to CAAM to confirm what you’ve written is true. CAAM needs to update FAA within 90days of request or else your entire process will have to reset.
5. Once FAA receives the confirmation from CAAM, they will proceed to email you and the FSO (FSO is the field office of FAA in the different US state that you can choose to finish your application — more on that later) the confirmation email.
6. Upon receiving your confirmation, you can proceed to make a booking with the FSO for a timeslot where you will need to present yourself physically at their office to finalize the application.
7. At this point, you should start booking your trip to the US. The entire validation process at the FSO typically takes less than an hour. I did mine in Seattle where the FSO is just 5 minutes away from the airport.
8. While waiting for your appointment, you can visit the FAA website to pre-fill the form digitally. Your liaison officer from FAA will provide you with a link. I will suggest you fill up the form digitally instead of the paper form so it’s quicker when you are at the FSO.
9. Until this point, you can do everything online.
10. On the date and time of the appointment, you will need to make your way to the FSO which you’ve chosen. This is a federal building so do take note that they will do some security check prior to you entering.
11. When you meet the officer there, they will bring you up to their office and you will need to furnish them a couple of things to confirm: your logbook, PPL license (the entire booklet), medical, the confirmation letter issued by the FAA
12. Once all the document is checked out, you will login to see your digital form which the officer will validate and endorse digitally.
13. In less than 30 minutes, your temporary airman certificate will be issued and you can now officially fly a N-plane. Your permanent license will be mailed to your house within 120-days.

As you can see, the process is really simple although you can expect some delay in the CAAM validation letter and the step where FAA needs to validate your existing PPL with CAAM as both authorities needs to perform the validation. Beyond that, everything is extremely smooth.