A federal court issued a ruling on Friday, December 7, 2018, that halts a Trump administration policy that blocked hundreds of lawful permanent residents from serving in the U.S. military.

Lawful permanent resident or green card holders can enlist and serve in the U.S. Military, and can apply for naturalization or U.S. citizenship through their military service.

Judge held that the Department of Defense likely violated the federal Administrative Procedure Act after it implemented a policy discriminating against lawful permanent resident enlistees. Judge's ruling finds that the Defense Department provided no rational justification for the policy change, stating that it provided no evidence indicating that lawful permanent resident enlistees posed more of a risk than U.S. citizens.

​Read more here.

Please note that in October 2017, the Department of Defense issued new policies that impact lawful permanent residents and other non-U.S. citizens in the military. The ILRC's practice advisory discusses how these policies affect those who seek to enlist, and those who currently serve in the military, including in the Reserve Components. 

The DoD policy changes will not affect MAVNI enlistees because the MAVNI program was suspended in October 2016. No one has been able to enlist in MAVNI since that time.

Before making a decision to enlist and to apply for naturalization, please review the practice advisory (dated 03/2018 - will be revised soon) and consider that under new rules "expedited" naturalization may not be much faster than a naturalization under a default rule.

Finally, on Friday, October 13 2017, Pentagon and the U.S. Department of Defense announced their intent to try to save MAVNI foreign military recruitment program.

"We are taking the steps obviously to save the program, if it can be saved,” Mattis told reporters on Friday.

Since 2009, more than 10,000 recruits have entered the military through the MAVNI program. MAVI program allows eligible foreign recruits to apply for U.S. citizenship and to become U.S. citizens.

Briefly, in Russian:

В пятницу 13 октября Пентагон объявил, что они попытаются сохранить программу для иностранных рекрутов в военные силы США, MAVNI program. С 2009 года эта программа позволила более, чем 10 тысяч иностранных рекрутов поступить на военную службу во всех отделениях ВВС США.

#MAVNI 

Read more here.

Soldiers in the U.S. Army Reserve are suing the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security for stalling their citizenship applications after they joined the military through MAVNI, a program that promised them fast-track naturalization for their service.

“Each plaintiff-soldier has kept his/her end of the bargain,” their lawsuit states. The immigrant recruits did their part by enlisting, training in drills with their unit, and subjecting themselves to deployment. The U.S. Army certified their service, and the military is supposed to provide citizenship as soon as they complete basic training or attend drills.

But at the Pentagon’s request, the Homeland Security Department is not processing their applications, as required.

Pentagon and Homeland Security officials now say they are considering going back and changing who is eligible to receive a certification of military service, possibly even revoking the certifications for those soldiers not in active-duty service. 

Although the soldiers named in this suit received their certifications, they “could be considered signed in error and may be decertified,” said Director of Military Accession Policy at the Pentagon, citing the program’s guidance.
The delay has put some soldiers at risk of deportation, the lawsuit states. These soldiers are “suffering irreparable harm” and financial strain as they face uncertainty about their status, unable to get a job, a drivers license, or a passport to visit sick family members, their attorneys say.
The 10 reservists who brought the suit were recruited through the Pentagon’s Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program, known as MAVNI, which gives expedited citizenship to legal immigrants who enlist with critical language skills or medical training.
Nearly 10,000 immigrants are in the MAVNI program, most of them serving in the Army. The popular program was allowed to accept 5,000 recruits in 2016, but was frozen last fall after security concerns about the vetting of recruits.

Now the Pentagon is considering scrapping it altogether, according to an internal memo included in the suit. This would leave roughly 1,000 non-citizen recruits at risk of deportation despite being enlisted in the U.S. military.
​Read the full article here.

A new Department of Defense and DHS rule that bars MAVNI recruits from receiving security clearances until they complete their first term of service has crippled the ability of soldiers to earn a commission and prevents the military from using their talent for years.
Earlier this spring, Dr. Kusuma Nio was anticipating two things in May. The trauma surgeon hoped to deploy with his Army Reserve unit to Afghanistan, where his expertise in treating catastrophic injuries would be vital to U.S. and Afghan forces roiled by resurgent militants.
The other thing: on May 5th, he was expected to naturalize and become a U.S. citizen.
Instead, he is watching his fellow soldiers of the 1st Forward Surgical Team based in New York leave for war. His path to citizenship has been delayed "indefinitely".

His citizenship oath was postponed indefinitely April 13 2017 by the United States Citizenship Immigration Service, who told him the Defense Department has suspended all applications from foreign-born recruits looking to serve.
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MAVNI or Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program was implemented in 2009 to take advantage of medical and language skills critical to the success of military operations around the world.
Newly imposed requirements issued in a Pentagon memo Sept. 30, 2016 — when the program was renewed — have created a backlog of applicants.

A rule that bars MAVNI recruits from receiving a security clearance until they complete their first term of service has crippled the ability of soldiers like Nio to earn a commission and prevents the military from using their talent for years. Until then, his time as a reserve specialist is spent cleaning scalpels instead of using them in life-saving surgery.
Nio and others are left asking a simple question: If the military wanted their talents, why are they sitting around not using them?

“I’m a fully qualified and American-trained surgeon. It doesn’t make sense to me,” Nio said.
Margaret Stock, a retired Army officer central in creating the MAVNI program, said May 8, 2017 that the reforms are so severely counter to the original intent of the program that it is now imploding, sending ripples throughout the military that will hurt recruiting, undermine its security missions and send personnel spending into a frenzy as the force pays bills for native troops to receive top medical and language training.
“This isn’t extending the program,” Stock said of the new measures. “This is destroying the program.”
Stalled by new rulesThe MAVNI program has attracted thousands of legal immigrants, offering a fast track to citizenship in exchange for vital medical expertise and cultural and language skills. The military identifies skills in “critical shortfall” and sets goals to bring qualified candidates into the service, according to the Sept. 30 Pentagon memo extending the program until September.

About 10,400 soldiers have entered the Army through the program since 2009, Army spokesman Hank Minitrez said May 9 in an email.

The decision to bar MAVNI recruits from receiving security clearances during their first enlistment term severely limits the contributions that soldiers like Nio can make, Stock said. Doctors cannot receive a commission without the clearance. Enlisted troops cannot enter special operations, civil affairs or intelligence fields, while troops with deep skills in languages such as Russian, Arabic and Pashto are restricted for years from doing the job the Pentagon said they desperately need to be done now.
Another big change: Applicants were required to have a legal immigration status for two years and complete background checks in order to enlist. They could start the Tier-5 investigation before shipping off to training while the long process unfolded, Minitrez said.

Now, recruits must complete a Tier-5 investigation before they get orders for training. The process takes months and involves investigations from the Justice and Defense departments and intelligence agencies, Minitrez said.

Stock said the Army was unprepared for the flood of additional requirements, leaving personnel soldiers scrambling to complete case files without proper training while soldiers piled up in the system. Soldiers like Nio are trapped in a classic military Catch-22 as he continues as a reservist, still unable to attend the basic officer leaders course.

“We haven’t been naturalized, so we can’t go to basic. But we can’t go to basic because we haven’t been naturalized,” he said.
Applicants are screened by the State and Homeland Security departments and other agencies when they get visas, which makes them the most vetted recruits in the military, Stock said.

Green-card holders, who are permanent residents but not citizens, are not subject to the rules, she said.
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“The new rule is especially pernicious because the requirements for passing [additional screenings] are completely different from the ‘good moral character’ required for citizenship,” Stock said.
“That’s not the legal standard for naturalization,” and the new requirements have not been imposed on immigrants naturalized in the past few years, Stock said.
Process breakdownThe Army, which according to service data is the biggest user of the MAVNI program, has defended the new security measures.
“The background checks are time-consuming and extensive, but we owe it to our soldiers in the ranks and the American people to ensure everyone joining has been properly vetted,” Minitrez said.
MAVNI recruits have been highly sought in Special Operations Command, for instance, due to their reliability and cultural skills vital to training and fighting with foreign troops.
“If you’re going to sneak into the military, this is the last program you’d go through,” she said.
The Army has acknowledged the new Pentagon requirements have severely bottlenecked the process since September.

About 1,000 Army recruits — nearly a quarter of the 4,200 waiting for background check approvals — have been in limbo so long that they no longer have legal immigration status and need extensions or exemptions from USCIS, according to an internal Army document marked “for official use only” but posted online in April. Minitrez and others were listed as the point of contact for information. The document is no longer online.

Minitrez declined to confirm that number, referring the query to DHS and USCIS. The New York Times reported that the number could be as high as 1,500.

While those delay occur, recruits without legal status can’t obtain a job if they are reservists and are subject to deportation.

Unused skills

The Army’s execution of new regulations has frustrated Nio.
Before recent changes, MAVNI could churn out minted troops with citizenship in hand in one to four months, Stock said. But the new restrictions have jolted the program enough to turn off future applicants, Stock said. While recruits with language skills await security clearances to begin training, they must enlist in other specialties that do not correspond with their skills.
“There’s no point to the program if all it does is produce extremely well-vetted truck drivers,” she said.
Nio said his motivations were different than some others. He holds a visa reserved for immigrants with special skills, and the hospital where he works can easily sponsor his legal status.
“This is a perfect way to give back and to serve and to learn,” Nio said about his path to becoming an Army doctor. “There is nothing like combat surgery.”
After earning his doctorate at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Nio enlisted as a specialist in 2015 with the agreement that he would earn his commission as a captain. His contract required him to serve six years in the Army Reserve and two in the inactive Reserve, he said. He finished his background investigation in April 2016, with his oath of citizenship and commissioning on track for this month, he said. But the restrictions have stopped all progress, he said.
Nio works at a Level 1 trauma center in his civilian job, where he treats patients with gunshot wounds, severe burns and injuries sustained from car wrecks, along with surgeries for conditions like appendicitis and hernias, he said.
Contrast that with his placeholder Army reservist occupation: operating room specialist. The job involves sterilizing equipment and cleaning rooms between patients. The experience disparity equates to a pilot grounded to scrape bug splatter off an F-16.
“I’m almost through a third of my service time already,” he said. “You have someone ready to go, and sitting as a specialist?”

Luckily, Nio said, his unit sympathizes with the disconnect between his skill and his rank.
Surgical teams in his unit conduct realistic training during their drill weekends, he said. Patients eviscerated by imaginary IEDs and gunfire flood medical tents. Nurses and medics buzz around Nio, who plays the role of trauma surgeon.
The training is realistic, but his authority is a facade. Once Nio removes his scrubs and stores his instruments, he steps out of the tent as a junior enlisted soldier.
Nio’s unit will arrive in Afghanistan this month as the country braces for another Taliban offensive and Islamic State militants seek to regain footholds. Sharp violence has recently struck U.S. troops there. Two Army Rangers were killed April 26 during a fierce battle with Islamic State militants, and three soldiers were wounded in a suicide car bomb explosion May 3 in Kabul.
“My unit is desperate for surgeons to go on this deployment,” he said. “And I’m just saying goodbye to everyone.”

​Read the article at Stars and Stripes here.

March 30, 2017 update on MAVNI program (U.S. citizenship through military service):

At some point in the past, it was a very popular and efficient program allowing foreign nationals to become US citizens through service in the U.S. Military: Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines and National Guard. 

In a video, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and immigration attorney Margaret Stock share the most recent developments. Since fall 2016, the MAVNI program is effectively being shut down. There are numerous delays in naturalization (currently, NSC official processing time is two years!), applicants are facing additional and retroactive requirements. In many cases, USCIS started doing a second round of security background checks, even for those applicants who were already approved. There have been reports of applicants being denied because they had a certain foreign relative living abroad (of course, foreign recruits would have foreign relatives -- they are foreign nationals!). There have been reports of U.S. citizens (former MAVNI recruits) being denied promotion in the military because they are naturalized citizens.

Presently, the US Department of Defense requires all applicants to be "in a lawful immigrant status" when they go to the basic training, and if not in a lawful status, they are required to apply for "deferred action" through USCIS, which is often denied. Atlanta, Georgia is noted as one of the jurisdictions with the most denials. DACA program is a form of a deferred action, which is accepted into this program, as well.

Briefly in-Russian:

Программа получения американского гражданства через военную службу, MAVNI program, претерпевает огромные изменения в сторону ужесточения правил (проводятся проверки "задним числом" уже после утверждения). К заявителям на американское гражданство через военную службу теперь предъявляются "новые" требования. Как говорят адвокаты, начали проводиться дополнительные расследования - в том числе тех, кого уже утвердили.

Иммиграционные адвокаты делятся статистикой отказов (множество отказов из Атланты, Джорджия). Адвокаты приводят примеры того, как их клиенты получили отказ по причине наличия определенных "близких родственников" за пределами США, которые не являются гражданами США. Ну конечно у них будут такие родственники - ведь суть этой программы в том, чтобы дать возможность получения гражданства США иностранными гражданам, и само собой, у них еть родственники за границей!

​Сроки ожидания гражданства через службу в армии (по статистике из иммиграционного центра в Небраске) в настоящий момент составляют 2 года.

Адвокаты, специализирующиеся в натурализации через воинскую службу, предсказывают увеличение количества судебных исков от рекрутов как результат отказа или задержек в рассмотрении заявлений на натурализацию. 

Министерство обороны США с осени 2016 ввело новое требование к рекрутам: теперь они требуют, чтобы заявитель был в "легальном статусе", и отсюда вытекающее новое требование получить статус deferred action, которое USCIS нередко отказывают. С точки зрения права, это требование не имеет смысла, так как deferred action не дает никакого легального статуса человеку, находящемуся в США после истечения статуса (визы), а только определенную и небезграничную защиту от депортации.

В целом, анализ заставляет задуматься о том, что возможно в будущем программа MAVNI будет аннулирована или станет непрактична или нереалистична для большинства рекрутов, желающих таким образом получить американское гражданство.

Вы можете посмотреть официальное видео от Американской ассоциации иммиграционных адвокатов, датированное 30 марта 2017 на youtube. 

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