And the FAA has changed it's mind again. Now they have procedures in place to do background checks on pilots who want to obtain an FAA lisence based on holding a foreign lisence.
See
http://www.faa.gov/avr/afs/flightins...n/n8700-15.doc for more information.
This is the form foreign pilots now have to submit before starting flight training over here, and it'll take about 60 days to process it:
http://registry.faa.gov/docs/verify61-75.pdf
Cheers,
Helge