I have heard there is a way to acquire expedited citizenship by enlisting in the U.S. Army. How is this possible?

The Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) enlistment program makes expedited citizenship possible. This program draws upon Section 239 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the naturalization of noncitizens during wartime.

The program criteria is the following:

1. Applicants must be in one of the following categories at the time of their enlistment into the Army: non-immigrant categories (E, F, H, I, J, K, L, M, O, P, Q, R, S, T, TC, TD, TN, U or V), asylee, refugee, or Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

2. They must have been legally present in the U.S. for a minimum of 2 years without a single extended absence over 90 days.

3. They must speak one of the 44 strategic languages OR be a U.S. licensed and educated medical professional.
*Please see www.goarmy.com/content/dam/goarmy/downloaded_assets/mavni/mavni-language.pdf for a list of the 44 strategic languages.
*The medical professionals recruited have primarily been doctors, dentists, and nurses. For more information about foreign physicians and MAVNI, please see my post on this specific topic.

4. They must meet certain Army criteria to include a high school diploma, qualifying scores on the Armed Forces Qualification Test, and qualifying scores on a proficiency test in the native language (if acceptance into the MAVNI program is based on critical language skills in one of the 44 strategic languages).

The Army's goal is to naturalize all soldiers by the time they graduate from ten weeks of Basic Training. Soldiers who enlist in this program are able to move from a temporary visa status directly to citizenship, bypassing the lengthy green card process. See INA Section 239. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) is generally required to make a decision on such military naturalization cases within six months of filing. See INA Section 239(g). This creates a wonderful path to citizenship for all noncitizens, including foreign physicians.

Please note, however, that the solider must serve honorably for at least five years, or CIS can move to revoke the solider's citizenship. See INA Section 239(f).