[jmitchell]

Hi all,

I am a Canadian citizen / resident and I am planning on purchasing a vacation home in Arizona. I want to take my RV8 project down there for completion and certification. I would plan on keeping the airplane there long term.

Does anyone know if I would have difficulties registering the aircraft with the FAA as a non-US citizen?

Thanks kindly for any help on this.

 

[RVnoob]

Hi all,

I am a Canadian citizen / resident and I am planning on purchasing a vacation home in Arizona. I want to take my RV8 project down there for completion and certification. I would plan on keeping the airplane there long term.

Does anyone know if I would have difficulties registering the aircraft with the FAA as a non-US citizen?

Thanks kindly for any help on this.

I heard of one Briton who registered his RV in a trust.

Sorry... don't know the detail, and don't know how that works.

 

[GOEZ]

It's my understanding that you need to be either an American citizen or have a US corporation in order to register the craft in the USA. Note that you will also have to adhere to all the FAA regulations rather than the CARS.

That brings up a couple of more questions:
- Do you need to have an FAA pilot licence rather than a TC licence in order to act as PIC on a US registered craft flying in the USA ... I believe you do.
- If you try to bring the craft back to Canada and re-register it with less than 100 hours then you'll be in the grey never-never land.
- Will you be able to purchase insurance as cheaply in the US as you can for a Canadian craft.

You might want to think about doing the work in the US if convenient, but then returning the craft to Canada for the final inspection, registration and flying off the first 40 hours. After that you should be fine with a Canadian registration and licence flying in either Canada or the US. You might have to spring for a "vacation" for an MD-RA inspector to do a pre-close inspection.

Just a couple of thoughts but I have no first-hand experience in this.

 

[Mark Albery]

As a non-US citizen, I'm in the same position. I have an ownership trust agreement through International Air Services Inc.

I'm just going through selling one RV to buy another. Setting up the trust and the first years coverage costs $319. I think they are one of the cheapest outfits offering this service. You can have a corporation set up to own the aircraft, but it has to be at least 75% controlled by US citizens.

You can of course get it registered to a US citizen that you trust. But be careful; it will be legally their's. If they die, it passes to their estate. If they get divorced or sued, it will be treated as their asset.

There are a lot of N registered (standard category) aircraft around the world that use these arrangements.

 

[Kevin Horton]

Another option is to build the aircraft under the Canadian rules and register it in Canada. The guy camped next to me in OSH has done this twice. The MD-RA agreed to delegate their inspections to US DARs, That might be cheaper and easier than going the US trust and FAA pilot license route.

 

[jmitchell]

Good idea...

Thanks for the reply Kevin.

I'd be interested in pursuing this option.

Any chance you could pass on my email to the individual(s) you spoke to about this?

I will PM you my email.

 

[N520TX]

For a legal resident who is a non-citizen, it's ok.

Does anyone know if I would have difficulties registering the aircraft with the FAA as a non-US citizen?

I was a non-US citizen when I registered my first aircraft here - I was also, however, a permanent resident (green card holder) of the US. The authority is found in 14 CFR 47.3:

47.3 - Registration required.

(a) An aircraft may be registered under 49 U.S.C. 44103 only when the aircraft is not registered under the laws of a foreign country and is?

(1) Owned by a citizen of the United States;

(2) Owned by an individual citizen of a foreign country lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States;

So as long as you are permanent resident here legally, you can get it registered when you are finished. Not sure how vacation residence fits in here though.

 

[az_gila]

I was a non-US citizen when I registered my first aircraft here - I was also, however, a permanent resident (green card holder) of the US. The authority is found in 14 CFR 47.3:

(2) Owned by an individual citizen of a foreign country lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States;
.....

...and a thank you to Barry Goldwater Jr. who had the "Only US citizens can own N-reg. aircraft" law changed in the late 70's. He was a Congressperson for the San Fernando valley at the time.

My first plane was owned by my ex-wife until this law changed...