NEW YORK, Feb 15: The American military will recruit skilled immigrants living in the United States with temporary status, offering them a chance to become US citizens in as little as six months, a newspaper report said on Sunday.

The report in the New York Times may be good news for those Pakistanis and Afghans who are living in the US on temporary visas and are able to converse in Pashto and Hindi languages. They may become American citizens within six months if they commit to serving in US military for more than three years.

The newspaper said that the immigrants, who are already permanent residents possessing green cards, have been eligible to enlist for a long time. But the new effort, the first one since the Vietnam war, will open the armed forces’ doors to immigrants if they have lived in the United States for a minimum of two years, according to military officials familiar with the plan.

About 8,000 permanent immigrants join the armed forces annually, the Pentagon said. About 29,000 foreign-born people currently serving are not American citizens.

Under the one-year pilot programme, the US Army will begin in New York City the recruitment process for about 550 temporary immigrants who speak one or more of 2,035 languages, including Arabic, Chinese, Hindi (Urdu), Igbo (a language spoken in Nigeria), Kurdish, Nepalese, Pashto, Russian and Tamil. Spanish speakers are not eligible.

The programme will include about 300 medical professionals to be recruited nationwide. Recruitment will start after Department of Homeland Security updates an immigration rule in the coming days.

The Times said “the Pentagon officials expect that the lure of accelerated citizenship will be powerful. Under a statute invoked in 2002 by the Bush administration, immigrants who serve in the military can apply to become citizens on the first day of active service, and they can take the oath in as little as six months.”

For foreigners who come to work or study in the United States on temporary visas, the path to citizenship is uncertain and at best agonizingly long, often lasting more than a decade.

The military also waives naturalisation fees, which are at least $675. To enlist, temporary immigrants will have to prove that they have lived in the United States for two years and have not been out of the country for longer than 90 days during that time. They will have to pass an English test.

Recruiters expect that temporary immigrants will have more education, foreign language skills and professional expertise than many Americans who enlist, helping the military to fill shortages in medical care, language interpretation and field intelligence analysis.

“The American Army finds itself in a lot of different countries where cultural awareness is critical,” said Lt-Gen Benjamin C. Freakley, the top recruitment officer for the Army. “There will be some very talented folks in this group.”

The programme will begin small – limited to 1,000 enlistees nationwide in its first year, most for the Army and some for other branches. If the pilot programme succeeds as Pentagon officials anticipate, it will expand for all branches of the military. For the Army, it could eventually provide as many as 14,000 volunteers a year.