Mine was issued in June 2010. You might have the same problem. I attach a snippet of my license to compare:
Look like mine. I’ll see when mine is re-issued as EASA in a couple of years. I should have level 6, but hey, perhaps not in CAA-speak!
This reminds me of when I was training for my IR in the UK. My FI was a (French) Swiss guy and we had been hearing many different accents from ATC. When we were flying back to Rotterdam we contacted Amsterdam.
After we had established contact the first reaction of the FI was “__ahhhhh at last some proper english we understand”! 
__
Mine, with a 2/2012 date on the bottom, just says
Language Proficiency: English
And I am not native UK; I am Czech.
I’ll see when mine is re-issued as EASA in a couple of years.
The EASA re-issue will only work if you have all your ducks in a row. In the same row, facing the same direction, standing at attention.
Having gone through the – frustrating – process, I can only give one tip: Before you send in the paperwork (or fly to Gatwick), call the CAA and verify that you are indeed sending them the proper forms and other paperwork, and that they have up to date information on file for anything that you’re not sending a form for. Only once you are sure you have everything sorted, send in the paperwork and include a cover letter detailing them what you want them to do, and what supporting materials you are supplying.
From memory, for an EASA licence to be issued, the following ducks need to be in a row:
- The licence itself (registered with the CAA obviously). And remember that under EASA, all licences need to be administered by the same *AA. So if you have a glider pilots licence or other licence, it needs to be transferred to the CAA.
- Your medical needs to be registered with the CAA, not with a different *AA, and needs to be current. You need to initiate a SOLI (State of Licence Issue) request to have your medical records transferred to the CAA.
- You need to have an up to date class or type rating for a licence to be issued. Or include the paperwork that grants, renews or revalidates your rating.
- Any other ratings (IR, IMC) that you want to apply for or want to renew, need to be on file and current, or the forms for application/renewal need to be included. (Supposedly your licence will eventually include a separate list of lapsed ratings so that a future renewal will be easier. But I have not seen yet how this is going to work.)
- If you want to apply for any of the “new” ratings (mountain, aerobatics, …) you need to include the supporting paperwork for this as well. What that paperwork is, can be found in the AMCs (Accepted Means of Compliance) to EASA-FCL, and is summarized in CAP 804. For instance, if you want to apply for a “grandfathered” aerobatics rating, you need to include proof, somehow, of having attended an aeros course according to the AOPA syllabus, or include evidence that you have competed at a sanctioned BAeA event.
- You need to have an LPE 6 on file, or an LPE 4 or 5 on file that has not expired on the date of licence issue. Or you need to include the proper paperwork (form 1199) in the application. (And note that all the “grandfathered” LPE 4’s expired in March 2012. So if you never submitted an 1199 form or anything else that validates your ability to speak English, you will not have a current LPE on file. I think that at the moment this is the most common showstopper.)
The CAA has changed their procedures somewhat. If you submit an incomplete application for the issue of an EASA licence, they will send you an e-mail about what’s missing, and will hold your application (including your original flying logbook…) in the queue for up to 30 days. This gives you 30 days to sort out the missing bits. Alternatively, you can use that time to get into a heated debate that they’re interpreting the EASA regulations and CAP 804 incorrectly. Which only leads to the CAA stonewalling on you.
Edited: The good news is that I noticed that the CAA finally charged my credit card (240 UKP…). This usually means that they have finished processed the paperwork and that my shiny new EASA licence is on its way. Finally. I did my IMC rating nine months ago, and that was what triggered the EASA conversion.
Mine, with a 2/2012 date on the bottom, just says
Language Proficiency: English
And I am not native UK; I am Czech.
I did mine LPE in 2011 or so I got a 6 and I sent the papers to the UK CAA at that time. I was expecting to see this reflected in the entry but it didn’t
I am Belgian and I think it just mentions English on my still UK JAR licence (will check this evening)
I did mine LPE in 2011 or so I got a 6 and I sent the papers to the UK CAA at that time. I was expecting to see this reflected in the entry but it didn’t
One of the major mistakes made by the CAA is not printing the expiration date on the licence. There is no way of knowing – short of phoning the CAA about it – when your LPE expires, if ever.
The other annoying thing is that back in 2010-2011 the CAA did not have procedures and forms in place to record LPE test results other than the LPE 6 issued by a UK examiner. There was also no guidance material available as to what language school was approved. I submitted my LPE test results in 2011 and they duly added the certificate (from the Dutch school) to my files. But at the time nobody acted upon the reception of that certificate, and nobody ever annotated my records to reflect that I had an LPE 6.
Fortunately I had to contact PLD a few months later and during the course of that telephone call I asked them whether they had received the certificate. Yes, they had, but they had not registered a six. After some switching back and forth somebody higher up the food chain decided to accept the certificate (or they were just going by my English as used on the phone) and promised me that he would annotate my records to register my six.
I can well imagine that the same situation is happening to you too. You submitted the certificate, but the CAA did not have a clue (read: procedure) what to do with that. So they added that to your files but never annotated your records. I’d phone the CAA to make sure your six is indeed registered.
That may not be the end of it though. First, the CAA is not accepting such a certificate today. Because a certificate from 2011 will say “JAR-FCL” instead of “EASA”, and because they only accept certificates from British language institutes by default. And even if things were registered properly way back, then for some odd reason (yet to be explained), the CAA does not accept a JAR-FCL licence with an LPE 6, as sufficient proof that you possess English Proficiency for the issue of an EASA licence. It’s a complete mess, and the easiest way to solve this is to make sure you send in an 1199 form, signed by a UK examiner. That seems to be the only form that the CAA accepts without any further issue.
QuoteI can well imagine that the same situation is happening to you too. You submitted the certificate, but the CAA did not have a clue (read: procedure) what to do with that. So they added that to your files but never annotated your records. I’d phone the CAA to make sure your six is indeed registered.
That may not be the end of it though. First, the CAA is not accepting such a certificate today. Because a certificate from 2011 will say “JAR-FCL” instead of “EASA”, and because they only accept certificates from British language institutes by default. And even if things were registered properly way back, then for some odd reason (yet to be explained), the CAA does not accept a JAR-FCL licence with an LPE 6, as sufficient proof that you possess English Proficiency for the issue of an EASA licence. It’s a complete mess, and the easiest way to solve this is to make sure you send in an 1199 form, signed by a UK examiner. That seems to be the only form that the CAA accepts without any further issue
That doesn’t sound promising I always praised the UK CAA for there efficiency and correctness. I hope I won’t have to review that statement…I find it all very strange as I remember to have received some communications from the UK CAA at that time about the English proficiency ..I will give them a call next week and ask for some clarifications
The UK CAA used to be very efficient, with a lot of clued-up people, but it has gone way downhill over the last decade. Very few people in there know anything these days. They have become like the average big business i.e. a small number of very good people are in there somewhere but they are nowhere near the customer interface.
Mine, with a 2/2012 date on the bottom, just says Language Proficiency: English
I wish you luck on your next ramp check in France or Germany. This entry is not a valid ICAO LP endorsement, it has to state the level and the validity period.
This entry is not a valid ICAO LP endorsement, it has to state the level and the validity period.
Says who?
My FAA licence only says “English Language Proficient”. No date. I don’t think that all the US airline pilots are quaking in their boots when flying into Europe, worried that a ramp-check will lead to instant imprisonment…
