Several hundred eligible immigrants who possess specialized skills in languages or some other kind of professional background have been offered the chance to get on an accelerated path to US citizenship by the United States Army in exchange for serving in uniform.
The Associated Press says that the Military Accession Vital to the National Interest, often sometimes referred to simply as MANVI, was created in 2009 by the Army on a one-year trial basis, recruiting 143 healthcare professionals and 789 soldiers who were in possession of specialized language skills. The program was reopened in the September of last year and 451 linguists who were able to speak as many as 28 different languages, 19 dentists and three physicians were all enlisted. Linguists need to be fluent in several dozen languages including Albanian, Arabic, Czech, Farsi, Uzbek and Yoruba.
Immigrants have been choosing to offer their services to the United States Army in return for being granted US citizenship for many years now but the brand new program will actually help to accelerate the process considerably. Qualified immigrants who agree to serve for a set number of years will be able to become US citizens within just a couple of weeks of their putting on a uniform, Army officials say.
In order to qualify, an immigrant needs to have been living in the United States for a minimum of two years, score well on Army exams, pass all security checks and agree to serve for a minimum of four years.