What 61.75 issues — and what it does not
14 CFR 61.75(a) opens the door narrowly. A person who holds a foreign pilot license at the private pilot level or higher, issued by a contracting State to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, may apply for and be issued a U.S. private pilot certificate with the appropriate ratings.
Read the level twice, because it works in both directions. Your foreign license must be at least private. But what comes out the other end is a U.S. private pilot certificate, whatever you hold abroad. An airline transport pilot license from a contracting State does not become a U.S. ATP certificate through this section.
Paragraph (c) carries the same limit into the ratings. Aircraft ratings listed on the foreign license, plus any earned by testing under part 61, may be placed on the U.S. certificate for private pilot privileges only. So a type rating or a commercial-level qualification abroad does not arrive with commercial privileges attached.
What the section does give you is real: paragraph (b) says the certificate may be issued without any further showing of proficiency — no practical test — provided the conditions below are met.
The five conditions in paragraph (b)
61.75(b) lists five things the applicant must satisfy. They are cumulative, and the third one surprises people:
(b)(1) Meets the requirements of the section. (b)(2) Holds a foreign pilot license, at the private pilot license level or higher, that does not contain a limitation stating that the applicant has not met all of the standards of ICAO for that license. (b)(3) Does not hold a U.S. pilot certificate other than a U.S. student pilot certificate. (b)(4) Holds a medical certificate issued under part 67, or a medical license issued by the country that issued the foreign pilot license. (b)(5) Is able to read, speak, write, and understand the English language.
(b)(3) is the one worth pausing on. If you already hold a U.S. pilot certificate — anything other than a student pilot certificate — this section is not your path. It exists to bring a foreign license into the U.S. system, not to add a second certificate alongside one you already have.
On (b)(5), the section adds a safety valve: if the applicant is unable to meet one of these requirements for medical reasons, the Administrator may place operating limitations on the certificate as are necessary for the safe operation of the aircraft.
The medical condition does not contain its own answer
This one deserves its own heading, because citing it carelessly is how people end up confidently wrong.
61.75(b)(4) does not state a medical standard. It points somewhere else: to a medical certificate issued under 14 CFR part 67, or to a medical license issued by the country that issued your foreign pilot license. Everything that decides whether you qualify — the classes, the standards, the durations, the special issuance path — lives in part 67, not here.
So the honest way to cite this requirement names the chain, not the first link. “14 CFR 61.75(b)(4), which requires a medical certificate issued under 14 CFR part 67” decides something. “14 CFR 61.75(b)(4)” on its own points at a true thing and answers nothing.
The second half of (b)(4) is the part most worth knowing: a medical license issued by the country that issued your foreign pilot license is accepted as an alternative. That is a genuinely different route from the one a U.S.-trained applicant takes, and it is written into the rule.
Your U.S. certificate stays tied to the foreign license
This is the operational consequence people discover late, and it does not expire.
61.75(b) says a U.S. private pilot certificate issued under this section must specify the person’s foreign license number and country of issuance. The link is printed on the certificate itself.
61.75(g) then makes that link binding in the cockpit: a U.S. pilot certificate issued under this section can only be exercised when the pilot has the foreign pilot license, upon which the issuance was based, in the holder’s possession or readily accessible in the aircraft.
Two documents, every flight. And the tie is not only about carrying paper: under 61.75(e)(3) the holder is subject to the limitations and restrictions on the person’s U.S. certificate and foreign pilot license when exercising the privileges of that U.S. pilot certificate in an aircraft of U.S. registry operating within or outside the United States. So a restriction on the foreign license is not left behind at the border.
Read that paragraph for what it says, and no further. It speaks about limitations and restrictions. It does not use the words lapse, expire, suspend, or revoke, and it does not state what becomes of the U.S. certificate if the foreign license ends — so this page does not state that either. Take that question to the FAA rather than reasoning it out from this sentence.
One license, and it has to be readable in English
61.75(f) sets two limits in a single paragraph.
First, a person may use only one foreign pilot license as the basis for the issuance of a U.S. pilot certificate. Holding licenses from two contracting States does not let you combine their ratings into one U.S. certificate — you choose the one you present.
Second, the foreign pilot license and the medical certification used as the basis must be written in English or accompanied by an English transcription signed by an official or representative of the foreign aviation authority that issued the license. A translation you arrange yourself does not satisfy this: the rule names who has to sign it.
Adding an instrument rating
61.75(d) handles instrument privileges separately from the aircraft ratings in (c), and it is the one place the section asks you to sit a test.
An instrument rating may be issued on the U.S. certificate provided three things: (d)(1) the foreign pilot license authorizes instrument privileges; (d)(2) within 24 months preceding the month in which the person applies, the person passes the appropriate knowledge test; and (d)(3) the person is able to read, speak, write, and understand English.
Note what (d)(2) is and is not. It is a knowledge test — the written — not a practical test. The proficiency relief in paragraph (b) still applies. And the same medical-reasons safety valve appears again at the end of (d).
Coming to the United States to train: the Alien Flight Student Program
Converting a license you already hold and coming here to train are two different situations, and only the first one is 14 CFR 61.75.
A foreign national who seeks flight training in the United States toward certain certificates and ratings is subject to security vetting by the Transportation Security Administration under the Alien Flight Student Program (AFSP). In outline: the candidate applies to the program and the flight training provider does not begin the covered training until the candidate has been vetted. Practically, that means the AFSP step usually has to be started before you book training, not after you arrive.
A limit on this page, stated plainly. Every 14 CFR citation above was read from the primary regulatory text this site keeps on hand. The AFSP requirement is not part of 14 CFR — it is TSA regulation, in a different title of the Code of Federal Regulations (49 CFR part 1552), which is notin the corpus behind this page. So the outline above has not been checked against primary text here the way the 61.75 material has, and it deliberately carries no deadlines, fees, or processing times. Confirm the current requirement, and every number attached to it, with the TSA’s official Alien Flight Student Program before you rely on it.
If you already hold the foreign license and are being issued a U.S. certificate under 61.75 without taking flight training in the United States, AFSP vetting is a different question from your 61.75 application. Where your own plan sits between those two cases is worth confirming directly rather than inferring.
What this page does not tell you
61.75 says what qualifies you. It does not set out the application procedure — how you file, what the FAA does to confirm your license with the authority that issued it, or how long any of it takes. None of that is in the section, so none of it is stated here. Take the procedure from the FAA directly.
AeroCopilot is an independent study and flight-planning tool. It is not sponsored by, endorsed by, or affiliated with the Federal Aviation Administration, and nothing on this page is legal advice or a determination about your eligibility. The regulation itself is the authority; this page is a reading of it, with the paragraph numbers shown so you can check every sentence against the source.