Joining U.S. military a "fast track" to U.S. citizenship

[Carbonman]

@smulder

… if we’re improving the Constitution I bet we can come up with a bunch of other stuff to fix before we get to “how about more militarism”

Yes, I completely agree. Unfortunately I don’t see an end to US gunboat diplomacy. Maybe working in the clinical or support parts of healthcare including facility maintenance, employment as a social worker or school teacher and similar occupations…

[Darth_Innocuous]

@gracchus

conservatives want to make military service the only criterion for citizenship.

That simply is not true many conservatives would want exemptions for:

1. rich conservatives

2. …

[anon65433207]

this used to be true - 50 years ago. I know a handful of people that served in Vietnam that then got US citizenship. But, there have been a whole lot of stories about soldiers being deported after serving in Iraq which led me to believe this is not a thing anymore.

I wouldn’t put it past a recruiter to lie about it though.

[zzzz]

came here for this.

[anon87143080]

I joined the US Army before becoming a US Citizen. If anything I think military service slowed the process down. I would submit paperwork and fees, get my interview date, but get deployed and miss my appointment. Start over.

There is a max time-in-service of eight years for non-citizens. In late 2003 I was approaching my eight year mark but the Army needed me to deploy. “Sorry” I said, “I cannot re-enlist”. But the Army had a fix for that and involuntarily extended my enlistment. Twice!

[anon87143080]

There was (is) a hard eight-year maximum for retention without citizenship. Some career fields also require security clearances at or above a certain rank, which requires citizenship.

A green card is required prior to enlistment. There are programs for accelerating green cards to allow for enlistment but usually they are for specialized skill sets (doctors mainly).

[smulder]

@anon65433207

I wouldn’t put it past a recruiter to lie about

… basically anything

[anon65652885]

@anon87143080

I joined the US Army before becoming a US Citizen. If anything I think military service slowed the process down.

I was wondering about the “fast track” part.

In France, you can apply to become a citizen after 5 years service in the Foreign Legion. From what I’ve read, few people actually get this in 5 years - it really takes at least 7. The spoken-out-loud reason is because you have to serve for at least 3 years, and have various bureaucratic stars align before the application can proceed. The quietly-unsaid part is that the Legion needs people to serve for at least 7 years in order to be viable, and bureaucratic stalling is easy. Citizenship after 5 years only happens in extraordinary circumstances.

edit:tyop

[anon61221983]

So when did you settle your citizenship status?

[anon87143080]

Achievement unlocked in mid-2004.