U.S. Military Will Offer Path to Citizenship

baraider

Registered Users (C)
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/us/15immig.html?hp

Immigrants who are permanent residents, with documents commonly known as green cards, have long been eligible to enlist. But the new effort, for the first time since the Vietnam War, will open the armed forces to temporary immigrants if they have lived in the United States for a minimum of two years, according to military officials familiar with the plan.
 
Conditional citizenship

Language experts will have to serve four years of active duty, and health care professionals will serve three years of active duty or six years in the Reserves. If the immigrants do not complete their service honorably, they could lose their citizenship.

...military officials have moved cautiously to lay the legal groundwork...

Revocable citizenship?? Oh my. Would it be the first legal precedent of this nature?

Give poor young desperate [former] students citizenship in just 6 months after enlisting, and see what's going to happen in the next four years of active duty. Something will happen... I wonder if they 'laid the legal groundwork' of citizenship cancellation procedure already.
 
It's a pity that the military is doing this now. If this had been in place way back in 1996 when I came here, I would have joined the Medical Services group in 1998. I would have also "retired" after 4 years. I'm too old for that kind of life now (I'm married, well paid, and fat).

-Rafiq
 
They are looking for such recruits for their language skills, including Hindi and Tamil. Interesting prospect for an F1 or H1B Indian who wishes to sponsor his wife to the US asap.
 
They are looking for such recruits for their language skills, including Hindi and Tamil. Interesting prospect for an F1 or H1B Indian who wishes to sponsor his wife to the US asap.

I am not so sure about that;) I wouldn't want to be or have my spouse be deployed to Iraq/Afghanistan :)
 
Hindi and Tamil???? What are you talking about...Why would they need Hindi language speakers? I can understand Arabic and other ME languages but Hindi? Come one now.
 
Hindi and Tamil???? What are you talking about...Why would they need Hindi language speakers? I can understand Arabic and other ME languages but Hindi? Come one now.

Have you even read the article?

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/15/america/military.php

India is considered to be a potential hotbed for terrorists (look at recent attacks in Mumbai) and Tamil Tigers have been active for many years. This would explain need for those specialized languages.
 
Ever heard of expediting N400 to get into military?

Anyone heard of methods or procedures to expedite an N400 to get into the military? I have a BS in Comp Sci and graduate with honors. Got my GC last year. Have a desire to join the military Intelligence community as an Officer. So need to speed up my N400 so I can qualify for officer training and security clearance.
 
Here is the official US Defense Dept publication about what is called the MAVNI program. MAVNI stands for Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/mavni-fact-sheet.pdf

For those of you curious about some of the language choices, please note: Tamil is spoken by the terrorist group known as the Tamil Eelam Tigers who basically popularized the concept of suicide bombings in the early 1980s. Spoken Hindi is very similar to spoken Urdu, which is spoken widely in places such as Pakistan. Swahili is spoken in Kenya and Tanzania which were the sites of the US Embassy bombings in 1998. The military may not always know what it is doing when it starts out, but it learns...
 
I wish they had this pilot program when I was in school all those years. Back then F-1 students had to somehow find a sponsor for H1B or leave the country.. Though I wonder if the program will move forward-- I bet a lot of citizens and veterans are upset about this foreigner-ization of the army.
 
I wish they had this pilot program when I was in school all those years. Back then F-1 students had to somehow find a sponsor for H1B or leave the country.. Though I wonder if the program will move forward-- I bet a lot of citizens and veterans are upset about this foreigner-ization of the army.

New immigrants and their children have always been a huge part of this country's proud military tradition. Tons of well-known examples abound: Colin Powell's parents came to the USA from the Caribbean, Eric Shinseki is a second or third-generation Japanese-American, John Shalikashvili was the son of immigrants. In World War II large numbers of troops were from Irish, Italian, Polish, and Jewish families - all recent immigrant communities at that time. Assimmilation is as much a part of the American tradition as immigration and "nativists" and "anti-immigrant" people always forget that.
 
newrunner, you're right about insofar as "immigrants" and the military are concerned. But isn't there a difference between immigrants and say people on a student visa? I think a lot of Americans are upset about the all-encompassing definition of "immigrant" these days-- just about any foreigner in the country, legal or illegal. that is what I observe.
 
newrunner, you're right about insofar as "immigrants" and the military are concerned. But isn't there a difference between immigrants and say people on a student visa? I think a lot of Americans are upset about the all-encompassing definition of "immigrant" these days-- just about any foreigner in the country, legal or illegal. that is what I observe.

This discussion is veering off slightly from the thread topic, but I'll just say this. The attitude towards foreigners in this country is generally pretty hospitable, especially compared to the attitude of locals towards foreigners in many, many other countries. I would rather be a foreigner in America than be a foreigner in many parts of the world. Just about everyone here, with the exception of the Native Americans, was a foreigner here either in this generation or some other.

Of course, there are pockets of hostility, bigotry, and ignorance, but by and large Americans just want immigrants and nonimmigrants who live here to follow the accepted norms of society and at least attempt a good faith effort to integrate into that society. At least that has been my experience for 20 years since when I first arrived here as an F-1 student.
 
This discussion is veering off slightly from the thread topic, but I'll just say this. The attitude towards foreigners in this country is generally pretty hospitable, especially compared to the attitude of locals towards foreigners in many, many other countries. I would rather be a foreigner in America than be a foreigner in many parts of the world. Just about everyone here, with the exception of the Native Americans, was a foreigner here either in this generation or some other.

Of course, there are pockets of hostility, bigotry, and ignorance, but by and large Americans just want immigrants and nonimmigrants who live here to follow the accepted norms of society and at least attempt a good faith effort to integrate into that society. At least that has been my experience for 20 years since when I first arrived here as an F-1 student.

You are right on the money. From my experience, even those people that seem to espouse less than enlightened views about immigrants, they seem to almost always make a distinction between legal immigrants and illegal immigrants. I've never heard anyone accuse legal immigrants of things that illegal immigrants are routinely accused of ("taking our jobs", "using up services while not paying taxes", etc.) Most people, even those with less than enlightened views, do know and understand that legal immigrants pay taxes and contribute to the society just like any other citizen.
 
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