General George W. Casey Jr. swore in enlistees, including 16 temporary immigrants, in Times Square.

By KIRK SEMPLE


Stephen Chi was born in Norway to Chinese immigrant parents, grew up in Sweden, received undergraduate and graduate degrees at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan, mastered five languages and now works as an information technology consultant in New York City.

But for all the experiences his life has given him, it has also left him with a sense of rootlessness. So he recently applied to enlist in the United States Army.

“I don’t feel like I belong anywhere,”Mr. Chi, 30, said recently.“I wanted to become part of something bigger.”

Until this year, Mr. Chi’s application would have been rejected outright because only American citizens and permanent residents were permitted to enlist in the American military. But under a new program that began February 23 and is intended to increase the number of highly skilled soldiers, the American military is now allowing some temporary immigrants to enlist.

In a public ceremony in Times Square on April 1, General George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff, swore in 16 of those new recruits, including Mr. Chi. The others hailed from Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, Korea and Sweden. They followed General Casey in a vow of allegiance to the military and to the United States.

“Our diversity only strengthens us,”General Casey said in an interview .

The new program, known as Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest, is intended to address shortages among soldiers with medical expertise and foreign language skills. It will be limited to 1,000 enlistees in the first year, most of whom will enter the Army, though the American military command plans to expand it to include other branches and thousands more recruits every year.

It is open to foreigners who have lived legally in the United States for at least two years on temporary visas, including high-skilled employment visas and student visas. Illegal immigrants will continue to be barred from enlisting.

As an enticement, the government is offering an expedited path to citizenship and will waive naturalization fees.

Of 4,833 applicants so far, 52 people have enlisted, while 445 have been disqualified, military officials said.

At least 24 of the soldiers speak Korean, 11 speak Hindi, 9 speak a Chinese dialect, 3 speak Russian, 3 speak Arabic and one speaks Urdu.

The naturalization process for most foreigners on temporary visas can often take more than a decade. But people in the new program will be able to become citizens within six months, officials said. To maintain their citizenship, the enlistees must honorably complete their service, which ranges from two to four years of active duty, plus reserve duty, depending on their specialty.

Many of the new recruits, however, said they had applied to enlist without even knowing about the new program.

Umesh Sharma, 37, who holds a master’s degree in international education policy from Harvard University, first tried to enlist in 2006 but was rejected because of his Indian citizenship. He reapplied when he read about the new program.

Mr. Sharma, who has been working for a private tutoring firm in Virginia, said he was motivated to enlist as a way of helping developing countries in areas like education reform. He enlisted as an infantryman because he wanted“to be on the front lines and associate with the society, face to face.

“If I’m in the Army, I want to be really involved,”he added.