Overview

Did you know Sept. 17 is Citizenship Day?

For many foreign-born military spouses, citizenship can feel like a milestone that is both deeply personal and incredibly complicated.

You may have built your life in the United States, supported a service member through deployments and PCS moves, raised children here, built a career, and contributed to your military community—while still wondering:

• Am I eligible for citizenship?
• Is there a faster path for military families?
• What makes the process different for military spouses?
• Where do I even begin?

This Citizenship Day, we’re excited to join Welcome.US and Combined Arms for a special webinar, “Honoring Service through Citizenship,” to help military-connected families better understand the path to U.S. citizenship.

Approximately 115,000 foreign-born U.S. military veterans—along with tens of thousands of active-duty service members and their families—may be eligible for U.S. citizenship. And yet, many eligible military spouses and family members don’t know what pathways may be available to them or where to find trustworthy guidance.

During this webinar, we’ll explore how veterans can support fellow veterans, military, and spouses on their citizenship journey. For foreign-born military spouses in particular, this is an opportunity to learn, ask questions, and better understand a process that can have a lasting impact on your family’s future.

Whether you are personally on the path to citizenship, supporting a spouse or family member, or simply want to understand how you can help another military family, we hope you’ll join us.

Honoring Service through Citizenship
Thursday, Sept. 17
1–2 p.m. ET
Register: https://shorturl.at/CBDNs

Learn more about the Citizenship Guide Program: https://welcome.us/citizenship/veterans

Know a foreign-born military spouse or military family who may benefit from this conversation? Share this with them.

Links

• US Civics Test: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/questions-and-answers/2025-Civics-Test-128-Questions-and-Answers.pdf
• Run of show: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hNaEU7RSLsEAcl6bHfplHCAQkgxZf4onU5aSzcE8yJY/edit?tab=t.vkxe5wkmjhzg

My journey

Here are the points I covered during my portion of the webinar.

1. I joined the Marines shortly after getting my green card, having moved here from Ireland.
2. I felt super lucky to be here
   1. I was looking for ways to give back
   2. joining the military felt like the best to do that.
3. I came from a big Irish family
   1. I left behind all my cousins & friends who felt like brothers and sisters.
   2. The military, especially the marines, feels like a big family
4. WI served in an infantry platoon in the reserves and on active duty
   1. Spent time in the arctic circle in Norway,
   2. Deployed to Iraq in 2005 and 6.
5. I started my application for naturalization as soon as as I could:
   1. 3 years into my enlistment
   2. The whole process was intimidating, especially the citizenship test
6. Despite being a corporal in the marines
   1. I knew more about the parts of a machine gun
   2. than I knew about the parts of congress.
7. There weren’t many marines in my platoon
   1. who I’d call constitutional scholars either
   2. it wasn’t like I was asking them any of the civics questions and
   3. when I did ask them some of the questions, they didn’t know the answers either
   4. that scared the hell out of me
8. I didn’t know anyone else who had gone through the process so
   1. I wasn’t sure how to navigate all the documentation,
   2. especially adding in all the military paperwork
   3. I didn’t take advantage of any on-base legal or any support because I didn’t even know it exists.
   4. It felt like there was so much at stake and I felt pretty alone.
9. So I did what most people did and made tons of flashcards
   1. printed out all the procedures and
   2. read through them all the time, on my own.
   3. I just looked at the current list of civic questions - Federalist Papers
   4. There were a lot of late nights and stress.
10. I still remember the day of the exam, over 20 years ago
    1. Sitting in the immigration office in the JFK building in Boston
    2. I came in uniform hoping it would make me feel more confident
    3. Thankfully the interviewing officer put me at ease and it was all over before I knew it
    4. I walked out of there feeling like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
11. Luckily I passed the exam and looking back on it all,
    1. the hardest part was the unknown — not knowing what to expect.
    2. All that the stress was unnecessary.
    3. My lack of knowledge and support led to process that took over 2 years to complete.
12. Which is why it’s so great to see the work Welcome.us has done with the Citizen Guide program.
    1. I wish I had someone to help along way.
    2. Some to talk through the citizenship test
    3. would have saved me a lot of sleepless nights.