The Pentagon has a program called MAVNI, which is in charge of recruiting immigrants skilled in languages or in the health sector.
The general rule is that in the U.S. Armed Forces may only enlist citizens and residents. The MAVNI program is an exception.
Who Can Apply?
The professional categories that seek the Pentagon for this program are two:
Language specialists. At this point, the main ones are Asians and Africans, although many immigrants who have knowledge in Portuguese are also sought. Spanish is not included.
Important: It’s not necessary to be a native speaker, but you need to be fluent and prove it through a test.
Healthcare professionals. In this case: dentists; general, thoracic and oral surgeons; medical emergency specialists, internal medicine and family medicine, ophthalmologists, otolaryngologists, pediatricians, clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, entomologists, anesthetic and psychiatric nurses, clinical social work officers and physician assistants.
Requirements to Be Accepted:
Being a refugee.
Having some of these visas: E (investment), F (student), H (work), I (journalist), J (exchange), K (citizen’s partner), L (transfer between companies), M (occupational student), O (exceptional skills), P, Q, R (religious), S, T (human trafficking), TC, TD and TN (Mexicans Free Trade Agreement), U (victims of violence), TPS (temporary protection).
DACA approved for undocumented young immigrants who came to the U.S. before they were 16 years old.
Two years of residence in the U.S. are necessary to be able to enlist. Likewise, the applicant shouldn’t have spent more than 90 days abroad.
The Pentagon’s Responsibilities
– Speeding up the process for obtaining U.S. citizenship.
– If the person hired in this program doesn’t fulfil his or her commitment to serve a number of years in the Army, he or she could lose the citizenship.
How Many Places Are Available?
There were 5,000 places available in the tax year 2016.