Signing MAVNI contract on Tuesday - Page 2

Tagalog

Congrats, man. How was that Tagalog OPI?

Did a brief medical inspection prior to signing my contract.

My civilian profession is in Information Technology full time.

I received 92A automated logistics specialist (Basically inventory and warehouse) - I can deal with that for the time being. Being in MAVNI and reserves, you will have limited options.

Signed the contract for 6 years (8 if you count the 2 year readiness stuff) The Sgt gave me the information for my unit and my basic ship date + AIT. She told me that since I joined the Army Reserve that I am technically now part of the army and can do drills with my unit even prior to basic training (I researched if it was true and yes it is.)

Next up, my recruiter will introduce me to my unit and process me there.

My plans:

After basic, use all the available resources to get my bachelor's degree (Associate's degree holder) then apply for Officers candidate school. (Goal time: 3-4 years)

Please note: you will probably be doing a different job than what you want due to security clearance, who cares for now... Be a citizen and go from there.

Til' next time... Open for questions.

Thanks brotha, Tagalog was challenging, especially that I've now been here for 14 years. The OPI operator kept reminding me to speak the numbers in my language.

Come on...

Bottom line is : You will pass as long as you it is your first language.

Sounds good, man. I assume, though, that you had to do some brushing up on Tagalog before the interview.

Since you mentioned OCS, do you know what the process is for someone who has a bachelor's degree and graduate degree? I know that officers have to be citizens so I'm wondering if you can receive a direct commission straight out of basic (if you receive your citizenship right after basic).

^The thing with that is once you sign the enlistment contract/MOS, you're basically set on that since if one was to commission that would be when you apply for OCS (instead of MOS).

I have a 4 yr degree but from what I read there's really no way for MAVNI to go directly into OCS route mainly due to citizenship requirement associated with it.

I did read couple of ways of getting officer status though, but it would be 2 to 3 years in time after the initial enlistment. One was to get rec'd through your unit, i.e. the typical route, another interesting method was you can go through ROTC (if you're in the reserves and going through school).

I'm paraphrasing a lot here so take it with a grain of salt, but yeah basically the theme is that compromises on all fronts to get that full citizenship, and then worry about other stuff later on

Thanks, K-Man! I was thinking about a scenario under which you obtain citizenship after basic, and then by virtue of that citizenship you might be able to accept a direct commission (assuming of course, you could qualify for one ordinarily). The Army MAVNI page also mentions an officer's commission as a possibility, but perhaps that is a distant possibility: http://www.goarmy.com/benefits/addit...ves/mavni.html

I do understand though we "beggars can't be choosers" in this situation!

Yeah you'll definitely have more options after naturalization, but it won't be so 'direct' if you know what I mean. i.e. in my scenario, if I had my citizenship now I would just go straight into OCS without a problem, but we have to jump through hoops on everything in life as you know

Basically even after bcs, you're obligated to the contract you signed to enlist, so you have to ride it out or look into programs like the ROTC or SMP(Simultaneous Membership Program), might be something maybe you want to google, as far as I know that'd be the 'easiest' way to transition in after enlisting/naturalizing.

Believe me, if I was from a country where the native tongue was something other than English, I'd definitely do what you guys are doing. Best wishes to you both!

Heya, could you possibly talk more about what it means to be in the reserve duty? I've heard that you leave one weekend per month and 2 weeks per year, but other than that I have no other information.

Would you be stationed in different states each weekend you leave? Do they call you outside of the set dates? What are you really expected to do in that short weekend?