Thanks to all of You for your answer. That sounds good...

Of course I also want to have CPL with instrument, but the most
important ones are PPL and CPL. So I suspect I could do all three
writtens (PPL, CPL, IFR) in advance and do flying later when I'm back
in the US. Sounds great, and leaves me plenty of time to be prepared
for the writtens.

Thanks again!

Joe