Foreign Nationals to Be Allowed to Join Armed Forces without Having Lived in UK Amid Recruitment Crisis

Commonwealth citizens who do not live in the UK will be allowed to join the British armed forces in greater numbers as part of a bid to tackle a growing recruitment crisis.

The Ministry of Defence has revised residence requirements

in the hope of attracting an extra 1,350 personnel a year to the army, navy and air force. 

At least 8,200 are needed to fill the biggest shortfall in the full time military in a decade, according to a report from the National Audit Office (NAO).

The new Ministry of Defence policy means applicants from nations including India, Australia, Canada and Fiji will be considered for all roles in the military.

Since 2013, Commonwealth recruits have had to demonstrate they have lived in the UK for the last five years.

Two years ago the rules were relaxed to allow a maximum of 200 non-residents to take up a limited number of roles. 

The cap has now been raised to 1,350 a year and of those 1,000 will be hired by the army, 300 by the navy and 50 by the RAF. Those from outside the Commonwealth will still need British citizenship to apply, apart from Nepalese Gurkhas and...  

• Independent