Executive Order at bottom provides a path to immediate legal immigration for service members and their families.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2004 ... 02245.html


Service Members Can Apply for Expedited U.S. Citizenship
By Gerry J. Gilmore
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24, 2004 – Foreign-born service members can now speed up the process to obtain American citizenship.

The immediate eligibility for service members to become a naturalized citizen is based on Executive Order 13269 signed by President Bush on July 3, 2002. Section 329 of the 8 U.S. Code allows the president to authorize expedited citizenship during periods in which the United States is engaged in armed conflict with a hostile foreign force.

For example, members who have served honorably for any period of time beginning on or after Sept. 11, 2001, are eligible to apply for expedited U.S. citizenship, Air Force Col. Michael A. Pachuta, director of DoD's Morale, Welfare and Recreation policy office, told American Forces Radio and Television Service in a Feb. 20 interview.

The peacetime waiting period is shortened to one year of honorable service, thanks to the fiscal 2004 National Defense Authorization Act. Prior to the executive order, the peacetime waiting period, Pachuta pointed out, was three years of honorable military service.

Effective Oct. 1, 2004, he continued, the new law allows for U.S. citizenship applications to be finalized at U.S. embassies, consulates and selected military installations overseas, to include citizenship interviews, testing, and oaths of allegiance. Also effective Oct. 1, the new law waives the $310 citizenship application and fingerprint fee.

The new law also provides sped-up avenues for the non-U.S.-citizen spouses, children and parents of service members who have died as a result of service in combat to obtain "immediate relative" alien status, Pachuta said.

He said the new citizenship application rules cover active duty service members and National Guard and Reserve personnel who are classified as members of the Selected Reserve of the Ready Reserve.

Service members who want to become naturalized U.S. citizens must apply for it, the colonel pointed out. Army and Air Force members seeking to become naturalized U.S. citizens under the expedited process can contact their military personnel offices, Pachuta noted, while Navy and Marine Corps members can contact their legal assistance offices for help.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Web site, he noted, provides forms, instructions and more helpful information about the naturalization process.

Related Web Sites:
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services










http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases ... 03-24.html

Expedited Naturalization Executive Order
Executive Order Expedited Naturalization of Aliens and Noncitizen Nationals Serving in An Active-Duty Status During the War on Terrorism




By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 329 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1440) (the "Act"), and solely in order to provide expedited naturalization for aliens and noncitizen nationals serving in an active-duty status in the Armed Forces of the United States during the period of the war against terrorists of global reach, it is hereby ordered as follows:

For the purpose of determining qualification for the exception from the usual requirements for naturalization, I designate as a period in which the Armed Forces of the United States were engaged in armed conflict with a hostile foreign force the period beginning on September 11, 2001. Such period will be deemed to terminate on a date designated by future Executive Order. Those persons serving honorably in active-duty status in the Armed Forces of the United States, during the period beginning on September 11, 2001, and terminating on the date to be so designated, are eligible for naturalization in accordance with the statutory exception to the naturalization requirements, as provided in section 329 of the Act. Nothing contained in this order is intended to affect, nor does it affect, any other power, right, or obligation of the United States, its agencies, officers, employees, or any other person under Federal law or the law of nations.

GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
July 3, 2002.