RAF?

"Thomas Schoene" wrote in message link.net...
Eastward Bound wrote:
Just out of curiosity.

Could somebody like me -

An American - No Criminal History - Single male - 19 years of age

........Join the English Royal Air Force? Would that make me a
British Citizen?

No.

http://www.rafcareers.com/thebigpicture/eligibility.cfm

"2. To join the Royal Air Force you must at all times since birth have been
a citizen of the UK, the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. "

There might be a little bit of a problem if you were born in the
commonwealth but you place of birth is no longer a member. For example
my girlfriend it Hong Kong Chinese has a UK passport and wasn't
allowed to join her university's RAF Student Officer Corps. Reason
given HK not in the Commonwealth (Maybe its because HK was not a CW
member just a territory of the UK not sure...) This stance will
exclude a lot of White Zimbabweans now but perhaps they would be
allowed being white and all...

Tom

n the US it is possible for foriegners to join the military services and
that speeds up the process of becoming a naturalized citizen.

John Dupre'


Yes foreigners can join, but they can not recieve a commission until they are
US citiizens.

I think military service will speed up the time for citizenship.


Ron
Pilot/Wildland Firefighter

Why the double standard? Why the hipocracy? Why the predjudice?

It's none of the above. The United States takes the attitude that
citizenship comes with residence, not bloodline. Britain (and I think
most European countries) take the opposite view.

The child of two Americans, born overseas, does not automatically have
American citizenship. He must spend three? years in the U.S. before
his 21st? birthday in order to nail it down.

Europeans would find this bizzare. I am an Irish citizen, with an
Irish passport, because my father was born in Ireland. It doesn't
matter that I was born in Massachusetts.

Since the U.S. is a nation of immigrants, we accept foreigners in our
armed forces and even allow their military service to speed the
citizenship process. When I was in the army, a "Lodge Act enlistee"
was a foreigner serving a five-year enlistment. He got his citizenship
along with his discharge papers. This was especially popular (for both
sides) with men from Eastern Europe, who were valued for their
language skills.

Today there was a photo on the internet of a protest demanding rights
for illegal immigrants: BEING HUMAN IS NOT ILLEGAL, or words to that
effect. Europeans would think this is nutty. I think it is nutty. But
it is very American. Basically, if you can get here, no matter how you
arrived, you can demand your rights, including the right to join the
army.



all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

The child of two Americans, born overseas, does not automatically have
American citizenship. He must spend three? years in the U.S. before
his 21st? birthday in order to nail it down.

Wrong!!! The child of Americans born abroad is automatically a US citizen.
All the parents need do is apply for a certificate at the embassy. My
daughter, born in Germany has one, signed by the Sec of State George
Schultz.

As a child of US citizens she could not claim German citizenship, the rules
in other countries vary.

However if one parent were a third country national, the child could claim
dual citizenship and decide later.

Les

Would that make me a British Citizen?

I think you'd have to live here fro 10 years and apply for
naturalisation. Less if you married a Brit.

By that time, he'd be too old for the RAF.

And if he married one, she probably wouldn't want him deploying to
Iraq.

Let's face it: Flight Sim is the way to go.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

Wrong!!! The child of Americans born abroad is automatically a US citizen.
All the parents need do is apply for a certificate at the embassy. My
daughter, born in Germany has one, signed by the Sec of State George
Schultz.

Okay, that's an alternate route. But the point is still validt: the
citizenship doesn't come automatically. (And what if only one parent
is American?)

Contrast this with my granddaughters. They are American because they
were born in New Hampshire. They are British because their father is
British. There was no need to register them.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

JDupre5762 wrote:
"2. To join the Royal Air Force you must at all times since birth
have been a citizen of the UK, the Commonwealth or the Republic of
Ireland. "

Does that mean no naturalized British citizen can join the RAF?

Apparently, yes. The wording seems fairly specifically meant to convey
this.

--
Tom Schoene Replace "invalid" with "net" to e-mail
"If brave men and women never died, there would be nothing
special about bravery." -- Andy Rooney (attributed)

Cub Driver wrote:

:Why the double standard? Why the hipocracy? Why the predjudice?

: It's none of the above. The United States takes the attitude that
: citizenship comes with residence, not bloodline. Britain (and I think
: most European countries) take the opposite view.

AFAIK this is the German point of view, but not shared
by most European nations, including Britain. You can be
refused UK citizenship even after a long stay if the law
thinks you're a shady character -- read Muhammed
Al-Fayed -- but one can perfectly be naturalised else.

The RAF can presumably be more strict, although they
probably could be made to accept all EU citizens.
IIRC there has been a ruling by the European court
that the freedom to get a job in another EU country
applies to the military as well.

--
Emmanuel Gustin

the freedom to get a job in another EU country
applies to the military as well.

Wow. No wonder the Brits are uneasy about their membership in the
Community.

My first reaction was what they would do when thousands of Turks
turned up at the recruiting office ... then I remembered the Ghurkas.

(And the Irish.)

What does the EU say about language requriements for such employment?

all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

It's none of the above. The United States takes the attitude that
citizenship comes with residence, not bloodline. Britain (and I think
most European countries) take the opposite view.

Britain's nationality law is primarily based on place of
birth (a legal concept known as jus soli), not on ancestry
(jus sanguinis).

Prior to 1983, birth in the UK, would confer British nationality.
Since 1983, a person born in the UK would be British only
if a parent was British OR if the parent was "settled" in the UK.

Settled means ordinarily resident in the UK without being
subject to immigration restrictions, and this provision was
implementeed in order to provide for British nationality by
birth in the UK, to the children of non-British
legal residents of the UK as well as the children of British
citizens, but to stop visitors from coming to the UK solely
for the purpose of obtaining British nationality for their
children. It's believed that the Thatcher government
implemented this change on the concept that there would be a
flood of people from Hong Kong, coming to the UK to obtain
full British nationality for their children once it was announced
that Hong Kong would revert to Chinese control.

There are, of course, some countries in the world whose
nationality laws are solely based on ancestry, and place of
birth has no bearing on whether a person has citizenship there
or not.

The child of two Americans, born overseas, does not automatically have
American citizenship. He must spend three? years in the U.S. before
his 21st? birthday in order to nail it down.

Not anymore.

The requirement for a person born outside the US, and who
receives US citizenship through parentage, to return to the US
to live for a period of time, in order to maintain his US citizenship
was repealed in 1978.

Now, a person who receives his US citizenship through birth
abroad to US parent(s) has no requirement to ever return to
the US in order to maintain citizenship.


Europeans would find this bizzare. I am an Irish citizen, with an
Irish passport, because my father was born in Ireland. It doesn't
matter that I was born in Massachusetts.

Several European countries have similar concepts. A friend of mine
is an Italian citizen because his parents were born in Italy. He's
also a Canadian by birth.

Stephen Gallagher