Can you become an American engineer with foreign credentials

A co-worker of mine is from Russia, where he was certified as a passenger and freight locomotive engineer. He is not a naturalized American and wishes to become a railroad engineer stateside, is it possible for him to transfer his existing foreign credentials and training, or does he have to start over again to return to railroad service?

-Ed

In a word................................no. Why? One reason, the very differing operating conditions and rules between foreign roads and US. I believe that, especially due to the current terror situation, that one would have to be come a naturalized citizen, work on a major railroad for a time, then qualify as an engineer in the US.

Sorry, but most of us, while sympathetic to those who wish to come here, do not approve of those who may have come here using illegal means to take jobs away from naturalized and native-born Americans. We, OTH, approve of the current administration's crackdown on immigration.

Come here, "jump" thru the proper hoops, do it the Legal, naturalization way, and people are most welcome, ISFIAMC. Slip in here unbidden, uh...........no.
Sorry.

GF

If he gets a green card and applies he is perfectly eligible despite what previous poster said, his previous experience might help, but will not formally count to getting a job.
best way is to try get entry level job at any railroad , but citizenship is NOT a requirement.

For clarity, the gentleman I am trying to help is a naturalized American citizen who entered the USA legally, filed paperwork, became a citizen, etc. I would not be going out of my way to help someone get a job on a American Railroad who was here either illegally or who I thought was not qualified to do so.

In which case he has every right to apply! No kick there! However, his "credentials" alone would not do the trick! Surely, it would help (knowledge of locomotives, general training), but he'd prob'ly have to "cub" just like the others. And there's seniority. The others with more "whiskers" will get first crack at the engineer jobs. (If its like Norfolk Southern)

GF

Certification isn't even transferable from one carrier to another, let alone from one country to another. Having previous experience MIGHT help, but his foreign certification is useless.

I agree that having previous experience would certainly be good on his application. The problem would be that he would have to go through the training and certification process. This is to fulfill federal laws. There are some passenger railroads, which do hire engineers right off the street. Most freight railroads promote engineers from other positions.

rrbluesman wrote:A co-worker of mine is from Russia, where he was certified as a passenger and freight locomotive engineer. He is not a naturalized American and wishes to become a railroad engineer stateside, is it possible for him to transfer his existing foreign credentials and training, or does he have to start over again to return to railroad service?

-Ed

I work with a guy from Bosnia-Herzegovina, he was qualified/worked as a locomotive engineer in Yugoslavia before the war. He emigrated to the US, and was hired on. His previous experience certainly helped him get hired. He was far more qualified than most of the newbs, myself included! So I would say it would certainly be a help in getting hired.

The CFR allows for a RR to accept the previous credentials of an engineer. The only issue is that his qualifications would come from Russia, and currently the only foreign country's credentials accepted is Canada. Some RR's will hire engineers off the street, usually the smaller the company the more willing they are to accept some ones previous experience. The shortlines I've worked for would be happy to have a experienced engineer that they didn't have to sink years of initial training into.