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02-16-2009, 12:47 PM
U.S. military to recruit temporary visa holders with offer of citizenship
By Julia Preston Published: February 15, 2009
Stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American military will begin recruiting skilled immigrants who are living in the United States with temporary visas, offering them the chance to become U.S. citizens in as little as six months.
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.
Recruiters expect that the temporary immigrants will have more education, foreign language skills and professional expertise than many Americans who enlist, helping the military to fill shortages in medical care, language interpretation and field intelligence analysis.
"The American Army finds itself in a lot of different countries where cultural awareness is critical," said Lieutenant General Benjamin Freakley, the top recruitment officer for the army, which is leading the pilot program. "There will be some very talented folks in this group."
The program will begin small - limited to 1,000 enlistees nationwide in its first year, most for the army and some for other branches. If the pilot program succeeds as Pentagon officials anticipate, it will expand for all branches of the military. For the army, it could eventually provide as many as 14,000 volunteers a year, or about one in six recruits.
The army's one-year pilot program will begin in New York to recruit about 550 temporary immigrants who speak one or more of 35 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Igbo, which is spoken in Nigeria, Kurdish, Nepalese, Pashto, Russian and Tamil. Spanish speakers are not eligible. The army's program will also include about 300 medical professionals to be recruited nationwide.
Under a statute invoked in 2002 by the Bush administration, immigrants who serve in the military can apply to become citizens on the first day of active service, and they can take the oath in as little as six months.
For foreigners who come to work or study in the United States on temporary visas, the path to citizenship is uncertain and at best agonizingly long, often lasting more than a decade. The military also waives naturalization fees, which are at least $675.
By Julia Preston Published: February 15, 2009
Stretched thin in Afghanistan and Iraq, the American military will begin recruiting skilled immigrants who are living in the United States with temporary visas, offering them the chance to become U.S. citizens in as little as six months.
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.
Recruiters expect that the temporary immigrants will have more education, foreign language skills and professional expertise than many Americans who enlist, helping the military to fill shortages in medical care, language interpretation and field intelligence analysis.
"The American Army finds itself in a lot of different countries where cultural awareness is critical," said Lieutenant General Benjamin Freakley, the top recruitment officer for the army, which is leading the pilot program. "There will be some very talented folks in this group."
The program will begin small - limited to 1,000 enlistees nationwide in its first year, most for the army and some for other branches. If the pilot program succeeds as Pentagon officials anticipate, it will expand for all branches of the military. For the army, it could eventually provide as many as 14,000 volunteers a year, or about one in six recruits.
The army's one-year pilot program will begin in New York to recruit about 550 temporary immigrants who speak one or more of 35 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Igbo, which is spoken in Nigeria, Kurdish, Nepalese, Pashto, Russian and Tamil. Spanish speakers are not eligible. The army's program will also include about 300 medical professionals to be recruited nationwide.
Under a statute invoked in 2002 by the Bush administration, immigrants who serve in the military can apply to become citizens on the first day of active service, and they can take the oath in as little as six months.
For foreigners who come to work or study in the United States on temporary visas, the path to citizenship is uncertain and at best agonizingly long, often lasting more than a decade. The military also waives naturalization fees, which are at least $675.