u/Embarrassed-Head-945

hey everyone, looking for some honest insight/advice because i’m trying to make the best decision before i sign anything at meps.

i recently scored a 91 on the asvab, but i’m currently only a green card holder (citizenship is from the uk), so that’s limiting a LOT of the rates i’m actually interested in. my ideal jobs are cti / it / is and even ac, but from everything i’ve researched and what my recruiter told me, all of those require security clearances + u.s. citizenship.

before all this, i honestly would’ve been okay with ls, but even my recruiter told me with a score like mine he’d feel bad pushing me into ls if that’s not what i really want. now i’m honestly pretty disinterested in ls too. the issue is that once citizenship restrictions get involved, the options seem to shrink FAST.

my recruiter said they can expedite citizenship during bootcamp, but the problem is i still have to choose a rate at meps BEFORE all that. i haven’t gone to meps yet, we’re waiting on scheduling now, and honestly this is probably what determines whether i sign or not because i really don’t want to get locked into something i hate for years.

my recruiter mentioned a few possible “pathways” but after researching online, i’m not sure how realistic they actually are:

reclassification during bootcamp
he mentioned there’s a possibility of re-rating during bootcamp if citizenship comes through, but from what i’ve read this seems super uncommon unless there’s some special circumstance. has anyone ACTUALLY seen this happen?
going pact airman first
he said i could go in undesignated as pact airman and later strike/cross-rate into something i actually want. but honestly… everything i’ve read about pact has scared me off. most stories seem miserable and people say striking into competitive/intel/cyber jobs isn’t easy at all. has anyone here successfully gone from pact into it/is/cti/cyber-related rates? is that realistic or recruiter optimism?
picking another rate and trying to cross-rate later
my recruiter also said after around 2 years i could potentially cross-rate into cyber/intelligence once citizenship is finalized. but how realistic is cross-rating ACTUALLY? is it one of those things that sounds easy in theory but almost never happens? and if that’s the route, what rates would even make sense in the meantime?

i also know job availability at meps changes everything. ideally i’d love something with an enlistment bonus, but if not, maybe at least a shipping bonus. i saw online there are shipping bonuses for people leaving before oct 2026.

would really appreciate honest experiences from people who’ve actually been through this. just trying to separate what’s realistically possible vs what sounds good in recruiting conversations, especially before i sign any contract. all advice is appreciated!

I’m currently 23 and just recently got my green card, me and my wife both agree that navy service will be a great way for us to progress our lives and for me to make up on all the progress I’ve lost not being able to go to college/not have a job living here. I recently took the PICAT and scored a 91, which I’m proud of considering my lack of education over the years. My troubles lie with picking a rate. Due to my permanent resident status, I’m unable to commit to every single rate I want to get into (CT, AC, IT, IS). It sucks because a big thing for me is civilian application, and also doing something pretty cool (I’m in the navy I should wanna experience cool, possibly shitty things.) I’m being told by my recruiter that I can always cross rate, but that also sucks because I don’t know the likelihood of that and don’t wanna get stuck at a shitty rate for X amount of years. Any advice? Right now I’m genuinely thinking of going LS and trying to cross rate after 2 years; but again, I’ve heard that can be somewhat boring (no offense to anybody who does it.). We’ve spoken about PACT and that’s out of the question for me, don’t really wanna do that, unless anybody has anything positive to say about it I may be unaware of? If you read all this, thank you very much and I hope to get some feedback!

I’ve been reloading my game since battania was destroyed and Caladog hasn’t joined anybody. Reloaded about 30 times already, is it even possible? Am I going to infinitely reload with no chance of it happening?