A program designed to attract highly skilled non-citizens to the U.S. military
— halted last fall after it was opened up to some
undocumented immigrants, is back on track to resume in a few weeks.
Margaret Stock, an immigration lawyer and retired Army lieutenant colonel who designed the Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest program six years ago, said it should be up and running in January at the latest,
Military.com reports.
The Defense Department has yet to confirm the timetable.
"I heard about it from some folks at the Pentagon. There's no public [U.S. Army Recruiting Command] message yet," Stock says, the website reports.
The popular program had been suspended while the Army said it was fine-tuning screening procedures. In September, the Pentagon changed policy to allow into the program immigrants shielded from deportation by the Obama administration's 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.
"DoD has set the overall fiscal year quota for MAVNI at 1,500, and the Army has been allocated 1,300 slots for now," Stock wrote on the blog for her Alaska-based law firm,
Cascadia Cross Border Law Group, Military.com reports.
The Army has used the program more extensively than other branches of the services, the website reports.
According to Military.com, most applicants have been doctors who enlist in the Army Reserve and get an officer's commission once they attain U.S. citizenship. Foreign nationals who come in under the program don't have to apply for a green card and have their citizenship process expedited, Military.com notes.
The skills the Army will be looking for include doctors and "critical language speakers," including those fluent in Korean, Chinese, Tagalog, Russian, and Portuguese, Military.com reports.