top-gun

Hi all.
20 year old male here, I am looking at joining the military in the US, however only citizens can become officers and to take the position I want (pilot/bombardier) you need to be an officer.

My parents both currently hold Irish passports, as do I. However, my grandmother on my mother's side is a long time US citizen who still lives in California. As far as I am aware my mother only lived with my grandmother in the US for about a year, age 15/16.

I have read a few things about a so called 'grandparent rule' but I can't really find a clear explanation of exactly how you can qualify for citizenship through this law. Could someone give me a brief run through?

Also does anyone know if there is any way of qualifying for citizenship through military service?

Cheers!

Ray

Nevver heard of a grandparent rule ... you have to have a minimum green card to join the US military

ian-mstm

Start here... then here.

Ian

Octang Frye

The US Air Force Academy is just down the road from me. I don't want to rain on your parade, but even if you can get citizenship, you have an extremely difficult task ahead if you want to be accepted. It's worse than the Ivy League schools. You either need connections or to be a legacy to gain admission.

Found this on Yahoo Answers for you.

The Service Academies tend to look at class rank, rigor of academic course particularly math, english and science classes and SAT scores more than GPA. In addition like all colleges they look mostly at grades earned in academic courses taken during 10th and 11th grade. Earning a varsity letter in at least one sport is also a priority seeing that over 80% of cadets have. Participation that shows leadership potential in at least one non athletic extracurricular activity.
Great Advice:
http://www.academyadmissions.com/admissi…
Recommended Academic Preparation:
http://www.academyadmissions.com/admissi…
Extracurriculars/Leadership Preparation:
http://www.academyadmissions.com/admissi…
Physical preparation:
http://www.academyadmissions.com/admissi…

Preliminaries:

Presidential Nominations: Unlimited in number. Anyone with a parent who is active duty or retired military is entitled to a presidential nominations. Up to 100 appointments each year to each service academy on presidential nominations.

MOC Nominations:
(MOC=Member of Congress=A Candidates Rep and Senators)

Each MOC can have 5 cadets/mids at each service academy at any point in time who were appointed on his nomination. As a vacancy occurs due to graduation or other separation from the academy, an MOC can nominate 10 candidates to compete for the appointment to fill the vacancy.


Assessing chances is complicated. There are several tiers of admission at Service Academies.

1)LOA Appointments: Are early offers and primarily based on scholastic achievement or scholastic achievement in a context of athletic recruit and diversity status. LOA Appointments Are not charged off to the MOC as one of his 5 cadets/mids.

2)Competition within nominating sources.

3)After the Academy has an idea of how many offers of appointment will be accepted/declined, it starts to offer appointments based on whole person scores of fully qualified candidates with nominations. Candidates are now competing ouside their nominating sources. This continues as the Academy receives further information of acceptances of appointments until the class is filled.

Chances also depend on how the MOC nominates.

Three Possible Ways a MOC may Nominate:

1)Principal nomination and ranked alternates
2)Principal nomination and unranked alternates
3)Slate of unranked alternates

About 75% of MOC choose to offer a slate of unranked alternates.

If a Principal Nomination is named and he is found to be scholastically, physically and medically qualified, and he passes his oral interview, he receives the appointment. If he isn't found to be fully qualified and if alternates were ranked, the next highest ranked alternate who is fully qualified receives the appointment. It doesn't matter if there are other candidates who have higher whole person scores assigned by the academy. If no Principal Nomination is named, the candidate with the highest whole person score receives the appointment.

Bottom line.... If a candidate does not receive an LOA, the fewer potentially fully qualified candidates who do not receive LOA's among his nominating sources the better his chances. Knowing Avg GPA and Test Scores really isn't meaningful in terms of assessing competition within local nominating sources. Nor is it helpful to gauge chances of receiving an LOA.

The Air Force Academy has clearly detailed what is important in terms of receiving an appointment, do as much as possible to satisfy their recommendations. And be sure to apply to the Summer Seminar Junior Year as soon as applications are accepted.
http://www.academyadmissions.com/admissi…
Summer Seminar at USAFA opened for applications on Dec 1 2008. Apply for the AFROTC scholarship and apply to other Service Academies Summer Seminars and for that services rotc scholarship. Apply for Nominations as soon as your MOC starts accepting applications. Look at the form on their websites to see how it is worded. It will give a clue to what the MOC is looking for in terms of extracurriculars and community service. Maybe think about taking a Math class over the summer at a JC to bump up to the next higher level in Math since that is an important subject to the Academy.

dreamercon

Since you are over 18, your grandparent's citizenship is irrelevant.