I was thinking about taking Arabic for the foreign language in LSA. I know how to speak a certain dialect and can write all letters and everything. I can also somewhat read it. I don’t know most fusha words and grammar so I’d have to start from scratch tho probably. I was wondering how much more work I’d have to do in Arabic compared to other foreign languages. Like if it’s vastly more time consuming then I’d just do a different language. I’d rather Arabic tho since it’s way more useful for me.
Here is a resource of how many hours many different FL take to learn (as well as categorizing languages by difficulty).
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Damn bro this has Arabic up there with Chinese 
My middle kid (the one who made my hair turn gray) hated languages in high school He started out in Spanish, but then switched to Latin because he thought it would be easier. He barely got through.
Flash forward a few years (after two and a half gap years, ha), and he decided to study at the American University of Beirut, so he could volunteer in the Syrian refugee camp. During his 3 1/2 years there, he became proficient in Arabic and even took graduate level classes in it.
Then he and his Syrian girlfriend moved to France, and he learned French. He taught English to middle school students there.
Their next stop was Warsaw, Poland, where they’ve lived a couple of years. Now he’s learning Polish! I really think God has a sense of humor…
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If you already know some basics, it should be easier than for typical English speakers. But be ready for 2-3 hours of hw per class period. The benefit is that you’ll be pretty good pretty fast - compared to HS language, college language level 1 typically covers years 1+2, then 1 HS year= 1 semester.
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From what you describe, it will be a lot easier for you than for those who don’t know any dialect, have no experience with it. Honestly, I do think that it will be easier for you than any other language, if you already know amiyyah. You’d be surprised how you’ll realize that a lot of the words in your dialect match up with words in Fusha. You’ll be fine. Just start at the beginning, and work hard at it daily, and you’ll do great.
No, not nearly as tough as Chinese. Arabic (standard) is regularized, almost mathematical, because it WAS regularized by mathematicians in the early middle ages. For that reason, it is very predictable in its structure - very few irregular words/conjugations. It is a very beautiful, precise language with incredible nuance.