Foreigner working as a flight dispatcher in the US?

D

dyspozytorek

New Member
Hi

My question might seem a bit trival however I would appreciate any comments or suggestions.
I have been in the aviation industry business for a couple of years. I've been working as a flight dispatcher for over a year now (previously doing some assistant work).
I possess a flight dispatcher license (issued by the Polish Civil Aviation Authorithies according to European JAR/EU OPS). Futhermore I'am thinking of taking a FAA flight Dispather course in USA (and hopefuly passing the exam) by the end of this year.
As I would like to take my dispatching career higher I don't rule out making other national dispatch licenses. The question is: Is it feasible for a foreigner from Europe with a FAA license and experiance to find a flight dispatcher job in the US? Or should I just stick to Europe and maybe the Middle East?
I'am posting this question because so far I've found only inquiries regarding US-citizen dispatchers searching a position in Europe.

Once again I would be grateful for any information.
 
dyspozytorek said:
Hi

My question might seem a bit trival however I would appreciate any comments or suggestions.
I have been in the aviation industry business for a couple of years. I've been working as a flight dispatcher for over a year now (previously doing some assistant work).
I possess a flight dispatcher license (issued by the Polish Civil Aviation Authorithies according to European JAR/EU OPS). Futhermore I'am thinking of taking a FAA flight Dispather course in USA (and hopefuly passing the exam) by the end of this year.
As I would like to take my dispatching career higher I don't rule out making other national dispatch licenses. The question is: Is it feasible for a foreigner from Europe with a FAA license and experiance to find a flight dispatcher job in the US? Or should I just stick to Europe and maybe the Middle East?
I'am posting this question because so far I've found only inquiries regarding US-citizen dispatchers searching a position in Europe.

Once again I would be grateful for any information.
Click to expand...

To be completely honest with you, Since the 9/11, I'm sure that security has tightened up pretty good. I know that at my job, my Director of Flight Control is very particular on who she chose to interview when the last dispatch position opened up. I can't speak for other airlines, but being a foreigner would make it that much harder to run a ten year background check, and if anyone is hiring, they will most likely take a U.S. citizen before a foreigner. Unless there is a serious shortage of American dispatchers, I would say the chances are highly unlikely. Why would you want to relocate over here? The U.S. dollar is weak right now, so won't you get more from the euro? My suggestion would be to find a job overseas that will accept wha you've got right now. If they require an FAA, then go to a school to get it, but if I were you, I would get something overseas. You can most likely get a higher paying job working for a middle eastern airline with a JAA/ICAO license. Sorry to play devil's advocate.:banghead:

Goodluck on your endeavors.

mission
 
Mission Aviation, thank you for your reply. I appreciate any info and yours seems "unfortunately" reasonable. I'll take it into acconut but will still seek opportunities, stuborn.
Why would like to take a job as a dispatcher in the US? Well the Euro is high right now but nobody knows what the rate will be in two or more years. Besides money is not everything (however it is not nothing!). If I wanted to earn more I would work in a profession related to my education. Dispatching is something I like to do. Secondly, dispatchers job in the US is quite different from what we have in Europe. It demands more responsibility and generally is "more of a dispatching job". At least in my opinion.
Furtheremore its always a challenge and something new you can learn.
By the way I thought that my experiance with dispatching planes to the former USSR countries (which is a though job and I even did send planes to aerodromes not found in Russian or Ukrainian AIP) might be an advantage in the US
Regarding the security screening issue, it is a point. But on the other hand I have friends who went to the States and work there as pilots?!

The real problem in my opinion might be the visa allowing me to work in the States. I do have a tourist visa but never applied for a work permission. I think there might be some opposition from an potential employer to appear as a sponsor for the permit. Its a lot of fuss. Am I right?

To sum up, my post is only a kind of reconnaissance of my dispatchers career opportunities.
Thanks once more.
As I don't want to bother you (I assume from reading the posts that 99% of you are Us citizens) I just ask you to keep my inquire in mind and if something comes up to your mind let me know.


So long
 
Employers can apply for a work visa for a foreigner working in the US, but they generally have to demonstrate that the job couldn't be filled by a US citizen first. In my dispatch career (now coming up on 14 years) I think I've only ever worked with one foreign citizen that got a work visa from his employer.

You might have more luck based on your experience with doing corporate dispatch, especially to foreign countries. I don't know what your native language is but fluency in that could make the case for a work visa here (like if you found a job that required fluency in German, and the company was unable to find anyone else with a dispatch license that was fluent in German.)

Also, for European jobs, I have heard that KLM has a very good, US-like dispatch office, and I think Swissair was recently hiring for some flight operations type positions in Zurich. Good luck on your job hunt.
 
Foreigner working as a dispatcher?

They had a few good songs in the '80s, haven't heard much from them since. But I guess they need jobs, too.



:D
 
aloft said:
Foreigner working as a dispatcher?

They had a few good songs in the '80s, haven't heard much from them since. But I guess they need jobs, too.



:D
Click to expand...

Believe it or not, when I attended dispatch school, my class consisted of 11 students.

5 American
2 Singapore
1 Bahran
1 UAB
2 Pakistan

The class after mine, I heard it consisted of 23 students with most of them overseas folks. We had actually gotten a few resumes from that class and the ones we had gotten, my boss could not pronounce anyone's names. Evidently, none of them were hired (sorry foreigners). I questioned my boss about it, and her response was that since we are a small company we could not afford to invest time and money bringing someone from overseas only for them to stay short-term. I don't know the process of work visas, but one of my good friends thats a pilot is trying to go to China to fly and they told him its at least 6-9 months to complete his transition from U.S. to Chinese work permit. I would imagine its probably longer from overseas to US since 9/11.
 
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