Navy Nurse Corps with Greencard

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · Sep 16, 2009

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BASIC REQUIREMENTS

To qualify for Active Duty employment consideration in any of the Corps communities of Navy Health Care, you must:

Be a U.S. citizen or a foreign citizen currently practicing in the U.S. (see a Medical Officer Recruiter for details.)

Be willing to serve a minimum of three years of Active Duty

Meet general requirements for age and physical condition (see Physicians, Dentists, Nurses or Specialists for more specific criteria.)

Meet all background requirements relevant to your position (see Physicians, Dentists, Nurses or Specialists for specific qualifications).

The key part of this is: "See a medical officer recruiter for details".

Not being funny and not trying to be a jerk, but that's who you need to contact.

Found with GOOGLE from http://www.navy.mil/navydata/questions/foreign.html:

Joining the U.S. Navy by non-U.S. citizens

Enlistment into the U.S. Navy, or any branch of the U.S. military, by citizens of countries other than the United States is limited to those foreign nationals who are legally residing in the United States and possess an Immigration and Naturalization Service Alien Registration Card (INS Form I-151/551 — commonly known as a "Green Card"). Applicants must be between 17 and 35; meet the mental, moral, and physical standards for enlistment; and must speak, read and write English fluently.

Note: The U.S. military branches cannot assist foreign nationals in obtaining admittance into the United States. Questions concerning immigration to the United States should be asked of the U.S. Embassy. Only after immigration procedures are completed and an applicant is legally residing in the United States may an application for enlistment be accepted.

Furthermore, in order to be commissioned an officer in the U.S. Navy, one must be a native-born or naturalized United States citizen.

The U.S. government agency which is responsible for immigration and naturalization is the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service. Their web site is at http://uscis.gov/graphics/index.htm

I know that the military does not help with the naturalization process per se, but because of the shortage of nurses in the US, perhaps they are able to accelerate your application? I just went through the whole green card process with my husband and it can be quite streamlined when the right people handle it.

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · Sep 16, 2009

Check this out -

http://www.cnrc.navy.mil/publications/Directives/1131_8.pdf

I do believe your answer's there.

And because people are going to ask, here's information from the Department of Defense:

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/mavni-fact-sheet.pdf

So they're all doing it (Army, Navy, Air Force), it's new for 2009, and it's mainly possible due to our wartime status.

I was DETERMINED to get this answered!! :)

SummerWhites · Sep 20, 2009

Hi Carolina!

The link you posted is for foreign nationals who have a Temporary Visa, but I am a Permanent Resident (still have to wait four years to be eligible to apply for citizenship though :cry: )! So hopefully there's some kind of program for Permanent Residents that is similar to MAVNI: health professionals who are temporary residents get to practice as Officer Candidate, apply for citizenship and within a year get commissioned. Through this program, a limited number of temporary residents can join but it seems like, as a Legal Permanent Resident, I can only enlist and I would not be allowed to practice nursing because all nurses are officers- except for the few foreign nationals under this program who are OC1 waiting to naturalize and go to ODS after they receive their citizenship.

If I enlist, as a Permanent Resident on active duty I can apply for citizenship but to my understanding there is no guarantee that I will be able to change my rate/rank as soon as I get my citizenship... and I don't want to get stuck! I grew up in Texas, have resided here for 25 years and waited through a huge backlog to get my green card so that I could join, but it looks like I'm going to have to wait even longer. I will contact a medical officer recruiter and find out there's a program for Permanent Residents. I would volunteer for deployment if they let me in. This has been my dream for a long time, so I'm not giving up just yet.

Thanks,

Laura

carolinapooh, BSN, RN · Sep 20, 2009

I tried. :)

I always try to lobby for the green card holders because I'm married to one - my husband is British and I know what a nightmare the whole process is.

Post what you find out; I find it hard to believe they'd exclude someone who was already here (then again, nothing about the feds surprises me, really).