This is another post that I am highlighting and keeping at the top of the page since it seems to come up every couple of days.

Non US Citizens cannot apply to become an officer, no matter what your degree. If you get your citizenship, now you may apply.


Non US Citizens cannot join Enlisted, unless you have a green card and you have a valid amount of time left in order for you to complete an enlistment. Each service has different rules, if you have a green card, check with the service you are interested in. RECRUITERS CAN DO NOTHING TO GET YOU A GREEN CARD AND WE HAVE NO ADVICE ON HOW TO GO ABOUT IT. CONTACT INS FOR MORE DETAILS ABOUT GREEN CARD AND CITIZENSHIP.

Also, if you served in another country's military, you cannot join the US military afterwards.

Once in the military, Troops get special preference when applying for Citizenship. Unlike the Civilian world, the process is much faster, because if you do not have your citizenship by time your term of enlistment is up, you will not be allowed to reenlist.

Hope this helps and for other recruiters, feel free to add your services regulations on Citizenship as you feel needed.

SSgt Tabury, Former USAF Active Duty Recruiter and Military.com Moderator

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Also, if you served in another country's military, you cannot join the US military afterwards.

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Uconn,
Can you double check this. We used to be able to put them in with no problems as long as they had a complete discharge (i.e. no IRR equivelant time left).

Had a friend that was an AF medic and former officer in RAF, the RAF MPs picked him up at his barracks. He was being reactivated for the little war Britian had in South America. Not sure how the AF worked this, I think they sent him TAD. After this incident though they wanted proof of final discharge and no chance of recall from original country.

As for your education it will need to be evaluated to determine your status. Each service runs this a little different, just make sure you can provide your recruiter with a copy of your diploma and transcripts (transcripts preferred).

high school diploma? we do the west african senior school certificate exam here in west africa.
can i use this in enlisting,can i become a commisioned officer through promotion?
thanks in advance.

c

To become an officer you have to be a US citizen.

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Also, if you served in another country's military, you cannot join the US military afterwards.

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Are you 100% sure of this? We have conscription here in Sweden so I have done military service. Would be nice to get a sure answer to this before I go ahead and dive into this.

Says a member of another services armed forces cannot join ours.

SSgt Tabury, Former USAF Active Duty Recruiter and Military.com Moderator

What are you refering to as a "green card"?
I have a permanent residency card - would I be able to enlist?
Thank you.

If you got a permanent resident visa, you have a "green card" witch is slang for a permit to work in the USA.

Thank you for your prompt reply! And it was the answer I was looking for! Thank you!

"Also, if you served in another country's military, you cannot join the US military afterwards."


Is this really true? I've done my military service (12 months) as a conscript in the Finnish military. I'm currently in my country's army reserve. Am I able to enlist in the U.S. armed forces? I've been surfing the websites of Navy and Army but I didn't come across anything like quoted above.

What they mean is that if you're currently on contract in another nations army, such as IRF contract or active duty for that matter, or homeguard, then they will not take you in. It's sensible, because you would then be a deserter from your country of origin's army. Once a deserter, allways a deserter.

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Originally posted by Vetinari:
What they mean is that if you're currently on contract in another nations army, such as IRF contract or active duty for that matter, or homeguard, then they will not take you in. It's sensible, because you would then be a deserter from your country of origin's army.

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That's what I thought... I chatted with Army recruiters in goarmy.com and they all said that it's OK to join if you have served in another country's military. However you can't join if you are currently serving.

1. Your status as a former member of another nations armed forces does not matter in terms of joining US military - ie: no special treatment.

2. You MUST be a citizen or legal resident (have a green card) in order to join. If you don't have one (through INS, the military cannot help you here), the military cannot deal with you.

Note: I am going through this process myself, and my post is simply based on my knowledge - which I am absolutely sure is correct. =)

[This message was edited by Grannyapple on Mon, 15 November 2004 at 14:36.]

but it depends on what country's military you are in.

SSgt Tabury, Former USAF Active Duty Recruiter and Military.com Moderator

The President of the United States signed legislation that supports SSgt Tabury's remarks. Simply put, any foreign national who serves in the U.S. Military will be automatically eligible for U.S. citizenship. I will try to remember to post the exact wording on this site next week. Good Luck Pete!

I'll add

Non U.S. Citizens cannot hold a Secret Clearance and thus cannot serve aboard a Submarine.

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Originally posted by uconndogg:
According to my regulations says a member of another services armed forces cannot join ours.

_SSgt Tabury, Former USAF Active Duty Recruiter and Military.com Moderator_

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This is absolutely correct, if you have served in any other country's military you can not "enlist" in the Air Force. Can't remember exactly what page it was but there is a table explaining eligibility required to join the Air Force, while it is not possible to become enlisted, an applicant may apply to become an officer in the Air Force provided they are US citizens, regardless of their prior foreign military experience. However, like Sgt. Tabury said it depends on where applicant is originally from. I remember seeing an interview of a former Russian officer, now 2nd Lt. in the USAF and this was on the official AF website.

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The President of the United States signed legislation that supports SSgt Tabury's remarks. Simply put, any foreign national who serves in the U.S. Military will be automatically eligible for U.S. citizenship. I will try to remember to post the exact wording on this site next week.

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It is the Executive Order # 13269. Any non-US citizen service member who served on or after Sept. 11 is eligible to apply for naturalization without waiting 3-5 years to fulfill residence requirements. However, if you are a student and going thru training you might as well wait before applying for citizenship because there will be a lot of address changes. Also USCIS recently waived the application fee for service members which is around $350. Once you are at your permanent duty station you can apply. If you get deployed, your service branch can send a memorandum to USCIS and your application will be transferred to Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany, Korea, wherever.... and you will be able to take the oath over there. Still it is at least 1-2 years of process for military members, especially for Army.

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Once a deserter, allways a deserter.

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This is bull... you need to think a little more before you speak, there are many countries on the globe that forces its citizens to do mandatory military service. I am against this. I know many people includng me who don't want to do that. You pretty much have to desert that service because it is not what you believe. Now if I want to be an American Soldier and don't want to do a mandatory crap in the country of origin, how does this make us deserters? If you only meant those who desert their active duty, I have no objections to that however people who don't want to do their mandatory service are called deserters by some and I am against that....


I think this is a very good thread and this forum needed one. Being an immigrant who is in the Army and researched about the Air Force for a while, please ask your questions here, I may be able to assist you and save some time for recruiters.

"Also, if you served in another country's military, you cannot join the US military afterwards."

Does this include the British TA (or weekend army) because I was planning on joining to get through university here before I moved to the US.

weird that some of you say that you need a green card to join the US Armed forces. Im a Canadian and I know of a few Canadians who are currently serving in the Marines and some of them had only a student visa. I think it depends on the country...but correct me if Im wrong about that part.

Well we have a statement and a question. Knowing Navy Regs and that there are usually ways around them via chain of command, we would like any feedback anyone has to offer. DavenYumiko@msn.com
My wife, who has her green card, wnats desperately to enlist in the US Navy. She however, has a CR1 clasification on the card. We are not youngsters, she 34 (age limit pressure) and I am 57...She wants to make the Navy a carreer. She has her masters from Hawaii Pacific and desiers to become an officer via the LDO program once other requierments are met. The question is......as with all Navy Regs there are wavers allowed...who do we contact?, and how do we go about doing this. This isn't a lark on her part, we have discussed this at length and everything is filled out and a go except for that one little classification (CR1) on her permanent resident card. From our research we have found this to be a Navy Reg. and not something from the Dept. of Homeland Security preventing her enlistment.
We are ready to go as far up as we can to resolve this delima, we are starting at our recruiter level hoping he will go along with us and help us through his chain of command possibly getting a regional commanders wavier. ANY help and or advice would be greatfully considered.
Thank You,
Dave and Yumiko Scoville(formerly BU1 USN)

I want to jion the army and am from ghana as for that one too what are u going do about it never save military i stay in ghana technical student.

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Originally posted by 5886529:
I want to jion the army and am from ghana as for that one too what are u going do about it never save military i stay in ghana technical student.

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what the hell that is supposed to say? lets start using some freakin punctuation shall we!

I'm a 20 year old swedish male who's interested in joining the US army. I refused to do mandatory service here in Sweden because of various ideological reasons.

Anybody know which visa/application to use, or even a link to a webpage would be grateful.

Thanks in advance.

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Originally posted by Dillinger1947:She however, has a CR1 clasification on the card. We are not youngsters, she 34 (age limit pressure) and I am 57...She wants to make the Navy a carreer. She has her masters from Hawaii Pacific and desiers to become an officer via the LDO program once other requierments are met. The question is......as with all Navy Regs there are wavers allowed...who do we contact?, and how do we go about doing this. This isn't a lark on her part, we have discussed this at length and everything is filled out and a go except for that one little classification (CR1) on her permanent resident card. From our research we have found this to be a Navy Reg. and not something from the Dept. of Homeland Security preventing her enlistment.

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The CR1 on her LPR card is NOT a Navy Reg. It is a DHS code stating that her LPR is on a "Conditional" basis. Meaning, she has to meet certain requirements prior to having that status removed. Now, she may have already meet them and just hasn't had the card updated. I don't know.

My mistake above, I thought you were saying that a Navy reg is where the CR1 came from... Since there is a condition on the LPR card she will not be able to enlist because she has not meet all requirements for permanent LPR status. She is not even guaranteed that she'll keep her LPR status. This will make it difficult for you to convince anyone to give her a waiver.

Also, on the CR1 status, if you do not apply to have the condition removed 90 days prior to the CR1. If you do not apply to remove the conditions in time, you could lose your conditional resident status and be removed from the country.

(I was a District Adjudications Officer for INS. My job was to grant or deny LPR to immigrants)

Look at INA 216 for the regulations on CR1 status and 8 CFR 216 to find out if she meets the conditions to have it removed.


Also, one of the conditions for the LDO program is that she needs to be a US citizen, not LPR.

ummm... hello can someone answer my question please?

I called a buddy from the Army who has prior service in the military of another country, and he said you have to apply for a waiver.