US Immigration News & Commentary

Permanent resident whose petitioning spouse passed away filed for citizenship. The USCIS challenged him about the validity of the original marriage and did not make a decision on the case. More than 120 days passed so we filed a 1447(b) action in federal court. The USCIS subsequently denied the naturalization application based on the fact that he was working for the government outside of the US for much of the time after his naturalization interview and because he filed 1 day too early. The AUSA filed a motion to dismiss. In response we argued that the USCIS did not have jurisdiction over the matter after the 1447(b) action was filed, the delay caused by the USCIS should not be used against the petitioner, and that he filed on time (3 months vs. 90 days). The judge agreed that the USCIS lost jurisdiction after the 1447(b) action was filed, frowned upon the reasons for the denial, and remanded the matter back to the USCIS for a prompt decision.

The USCIS dropped the inquiry into the marriage, approved the petition, and scheduled the client for an oath ceremony.

On 11/25/2008, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates signed a memorandum allowing the Army, Navy, Air Force, to recruit non-citizens and non-residents.

Titled “Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest” (MAVNI), the program allows some non-citizens who are legally present in the United States to join the military. Based on joining the military the individuals can then immediately apply for citizenship without ever becoming a permanent resident.

The program is limited in its duration and scope at this time. The military will only recruit 1000 people and the program will only last 12 months.

Individuals in the following statuses are eligible:

Asylee, refugee, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), or, E, F, H, I, J, K, L, M, O, P, Q, R, S, T, TC, TD, TN, U, or V.

The individual must have been in valid status in one or more of those categories for at least two years
immediately prior to the enlistment date and must not have had any single absence from the United States of
more than 90 days during the two year period immediately preceding the date of enlistment in the military.

The military is looking for physicians and nurses as well as individuals with language skills/cultural knowledge.

The military is looking for individuals with the following language skills/cultural association:

Languages

• Albanian
• Amharic
• Arabic
• Azerbaijani
• Bengali
• Burmese
• Cambodian-Khmer
• Chinese
• Czech
• Hausa
• Hindi
• Hungarian
• Igbo
• Indonesian
• Korean
• Kurdish
• Lao
• Malay
• Malayalam
• Moro
• Nepalese
• Persian [Dari &
Farsi]
• Polish
• Punjabi
• Pushtu (aka Pashto)
• Russian
• Sindhi
• Sinhalese
• Somali
• Swahili
• Tamil
• Turkish
• Turkmen
• Urdu
• Yoruba

Individuals who are out of status or here without authorization are NOT eligible.
[PDF}Fact Sheet on the Program

[PDF]More important information on the program