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US Army and Navy To Begin Naturalization Process During Basic Training
Federal Immigration officers will now be given access to legal immigrants during their basic military training, to help them administratively accomplish the citizenship process while still in the United States. They must still serve five years of honorable service on active duty to complete the process, or their citizenship can be revoked.The reasoning is that it is far easier for this to be done at a central location, than once they have been dispersed to duty stations throughout the world, where the process is far more difficult, expensive and time consuming. This new process began with an executive order signed by president W. Bush after 9-11. Previously, foreign citizenship military personnel had to perform a year of military service before they could even begin the citizenship process. This justified the expedited process because the nation was in a "period of hostilities" About 1,000 soldiers and sailors have already completed the administrative process in basic training in 2010. Overall, the government granted citizenship to 11,146 service members last year. The program has also strongly benefited the military, as many of the recruits both have needed special language skills, and once that provisional citizenship has been given, they are permitted to serve in a larger field of Military Occupation Specialties. This has also given the military the ability to recruit foreigners, such as translators, who have been of considerable assistance to US military units overseas. Such people often risk their lives by remaining in their home country, and US citizenship for them via military service is seen as a tangible and valuable reward for their help. Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-04-21 |
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