The first applicant to enlist in the military under the Defense Department’s Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) pilot recruiting program is now a U.S. Citizen. The unnamed nonimmigrant doctor enlisted in the Army in April and applied to become a naturalized citizen in June. He took his Oath of Allegiance to become a U.S. citizen on July 17, 2009, after passing his naturalization test earlier this month.
As a medical professional, the doctor was commissioned as a Captain in the Army Medical Corps on July 3, and will serve in the Army for the next six years.
The MAVNI pilot recruiting program will run until December 31, 2009, and will allow up to 1,000 non-citizens, who do not have permanent resident status (“green cards”) but have been here legally for at least two years, to join the Army if they have the needed medical skills or foreign language and cultural expertise.
More information on the MAVNI program is available online at http://www.goarmy.com/info/mavni or in the Defense Department fact sheet: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/mavni-fact-sheet.pdf.
Please contact your Wolfsdorf Immigration Law Group professional at 1-800-VISA-LAW or via email to VisaLaw@Wolfsdorf.com if you have any questions about this or other matters.