Many taking military shortcut to U.S. citizenship - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has provided legal immigrants a fast track to citizenship, and they are taking advantage of it in record numbers, even if it means facing the risk of death or injury in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Interest surged after President George W. Bush signed an executive order in July 2002 allowing immigrants with green cards to become citizens as soon as they are sworn in, according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS).
Since then, more than 25,000 immigrant members of the armed services have become U.S. citizens and another 40,000 are eligible to request naturalization, USCIS said in a statement.
The numbers rose to 4,614 in fiscal 2005 ended September 30, 2005, from 749 in 2001, the agency's figures show.
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