Does a CFI have to be a CFII to fly with a student in IMC? A CFI wants to fly with a student under the following conditions:


CFI has ASEL pilot cert with Instrument Rating
CFI has ASEL Instructor cert with NO Instrument Rating
CFI is current in all regards
Flight will be IMC
The Training will not count toward a rating
Will be logged with dual given and actual intruments
No, a pilot with CP-ASEL-IA and CFI-ASE who is instrument current can take a student into actual IMC, and can even log it in both logbooks as dual training if the instruction is on the area of operation described in FAR 61.107(b)(1)(ix) "Basic Instrument Maneuvers" (etc) because that AOA is towards a private pilot certificate. However, this would be a Dumb Thing to Do because a CFI with no -I does not have any training flying instruments from the right seat, which is a skill that takes quite a bit of practice.

The thing that a CFI-I allows a person to do is to provide training on the areas of operation in FAR 61.65 towards an instrument rating.