 You're trying to join the Air Force. You want to know if you're qualified. Hey, what's up everybody? Jody with the Y. Some of you may know me, some of you may not, but me and Cal got, we go way back. He came out to my depth call, back in Cedar Rapids where I used to recruit in like 2017, 2018. He actually inspired me to start my own YouTube channel in March of this year. And when I first started, I'm not gonna lie. I actually went on a depth call video and commented like, hey, look at me, I'm the recruiter in the video. Thinking I was gonna draw some traffic to my channel. That didn't work. So after this video, make sure you go over to my channel and hit subscribe. And if you haven't already hit subscribe to Cal got channel, make sure you do that too. So the first thing a recruiter is gonna do when you call is try to determine what component you're interested in. They're gonna figure out if you're trying to do active duty Air National Guard or the reserve. And the reason why they do on this is because an active duty recruiter can't recruit for Air National Guard or reserve and vice versa. So we gotta make sure that you call the right recruiter and if not get you to the recruiter you need to talk to. After that, they're gonna ask the program you're interested in. They're gonna see if you're trying to join and list it or as an officer or as a health professions career. Once again, they're just trying to determine if you call the right recruiter. After that, they're gonna ask your name. The reason why they're doing this, first of all, they wanna get to know you but more importantly, they wanna make sure that you haven't already started the process with another recruiter before. And if you did, they wanna make sure that there's no shadiness going on or anything they should be aware of. Next, they're gonna ask you your birth sex and they're trying to see if it matches your preferred gender. Unfortunately, at this time, if you say that your preferred gender is different from your birth sex then you are ineligible to join. But that can change. And if it does, best believe I'm gonna make a video about it. Next, they're gonna ask if you have a Social Security card. They shouldn't be asking for your Social Security number over the phone but they do wanna make sure you have a Social Security card because that is one of the documents you need to proceed in the process. Next, they're gonna ask you your age and date of birth. They're just trying to make sure you're not too young and you're not too old. So the ages they're looking for is anywhere between 17 and 39. If you're younger than 17 or older than 39, it's not gonna happen. Unless you're like an old doctor or something. But most commonly, they don't do age waivers for people unless they really need them. Then they're gonna ask you if you have a valid driver's license or some form of picture ID. If you don't have a driver's license, you can still join. However, you won't be able to qualify for the jobs that require you to be able to drive. Then they're gonna verify that the number you called them on is the same number you want them to continue calling you on during the process. Next, they're gonna ask you your place of birth and they're trying to determine your citizenship. They're trying to see if you are a U.S. citizen by birth, if you're naturalized, if you were derived, whatever your citizenship is, they're trying to figure it out. If you do not have a U.S. citizenship, you can still join. However, you're gonna need a green card or an INS form 551. There's a couple other documents you can use if you do not have citizenship, but the most common one is the INS 551. So if you don't have that, if you're here on like a student visa or a work visa, you will not be able to join the Air Force. Also, your green card needs to have at least two years before it expires for you to be eligible to join. Then they're gonna ask you your current address. And the reason why they're doing that is to make sure you call the right recruiter. When I used to recruit, I had somebody call me from Louisiana before. So going through the process, I realized that from Louisiana, I'm like, hey man, you got the wrong number. So they gotta ask your address. Next, they'll ask you your marital status. So if you're single, married, divorced, widowed, whatever your marital status is, they need to know. All right, now we're getting into the fun stuff. This stuff can get you disqualified from the Air Force to make sure you pay close attention. Next, they're gonna ask if you have or if you've ever had any children or anyone who's dependent upon you for support. If you're single and you say yes, then you are disqualified from the Air Force. But that doesn't mean you can't get a waiver. The Air Force does have dependency waivers. In order to get the waiver done, you basically need to prove that you're gonna have childcare through basic training and through technical training. And you have all your finances in order. This does not mean that you give up custody for your child. It is actually frowned upon if you give up custody for your child in order to join the Air Force. That will render you ineligible forever if you did it. So don't do that. Also, if you're married and your spouse is a civilian, then you can only have two children when joining the Air Force. And if you're trying to join the Air National Guard or the Air Force Reserve, that's one child per married applicant. Also, they're gonna ask you if you expect any changes in the next 12 months. So if you got somebody pregnant, then you're not gonna be able to join without a waiver. That fetus is actually considered a dependent. Next, they're gonna read a definition to you. It goes like this. A conscientious objector is an individual with a firm, fixed or sincere objection to the participation of war in any form or to the performance of armed services because of any religious training or beliefs. This basically means that you won't do military duties for whatever beliefs that you have. If you say yes to that, then you are ineligible to join. There's no waiver for that. Then they're gonna ask you your highest level of education completed. They want you to at least have a high school diploma or equivalent, but you can't join without one. If you do not have a high school diploma, you need to score a 65 on the ASVAB in order to join. If you took the GED test, you're gonna need to score a 50 on the ASVAB in order to join. Then they're gonna ask if you have any tattoos, body modifications, piercings, anything like that. If you do have any, you gotta disclose them all. The tattoo rules, you cannot have anything on your face above your neck. The only thing you can have on your hands is one ring tattoo on any finger and it can't be more than three eighths of an inch. As far as piercings go, you can join. You just gotta be able to take them all out. If your ears are gauged, then you're gonna have to get those closed up to the point where no light shines through. Then they're gonna ask you what your present health is like. Have you ever been seen by a doctor for any reason? And have you ever been prescribed medication for any reason? They basically try to get a feel if you're healthy or if you're sickly. If you got a lot of medical conditions, it can make it really hard for you to join. So keep that in mind. If you wanna learn more about medical conditions and waivers, I actually have a video on my channel, so go ahead and check that out. Next, they're gonna get into your morals. Morals are basically like criminal offenses. So anything you've ever done criminally, whether it was a traffic ticket or you beat somebody up, whatever it was, you gotta let your recruiter know. And not just the stuff you think they can find. You gotta let them know everything. So if you ever got anything dropped, dismissed or anything like that, you gotta let your recruiter know. I also did a video about the waiver process. I told a story about one of my worst waivers I ever did. So if you wanna hear that, you can go to my channel and check it out. Then they're gonna ask you your drug history. They're gonna ask if you ever used, sold, possessed or transported any illegal drugs to include marijuana. I will say this, marijuana use is very common. It's not an automatic disqualifier depending on how many times you smoked it. If you smoke too many times and it seems like you're a habitual user, then that can be disqualifying. But if you experimented a couple of times here and there, that's not a disqualifying factor. So don't be scared to tell your recruiter about how many times you smoked. Then they're gonna ask you if you've ever taken the ASVAP. And if you have taken the ASVAP, they wanna ask your score. And they also wanna see when it was taken. If it was within the last two years that ASVAP test is valid. If it's not, then you're gonna have to retake the ASVAP over. They're also gonna ask if you've ever taken an armed forces physical, basically if you ever been to MAPS. And the reason why they wanna know that is to make sure you will never disqualify for any reason at MAPS. Then they're gonna ask if you've ever served in the military before. And they're just trying to make sure everything was good when you served and also trying to determine your rank if you come back in. Then they're gonna ask if you ever received an Eagle Scott Award, a Gold Palm Award, if you ever won any awards in a civil air patrol, or if you ever been part of the junior ROTC or ROTC. They're just trying to determine if you're gonna get any extra rank coming into the Air Force. Then they're gonna ask about your finances. Has anything ever gone to collections? Has anything been charged off, repossessed, or have you ever filed for bankruptcy? They're basically trying to make sure that you got good finances. If you do have anything like I just described, then you're probably gonna need a financial waiver. And those are pretty easy to get cleared as long as you can prove that you have a payment plan or you paid off whatever the financial issue was. The last thing they're gonna ask is if there's anyone else involved in your decision-making process. And the reason why they wanna know is because if there is, they want them to come to the appointment too. That way they can sit down with both of you and make sure everybody's on the right page. If you got all the way through this form and you didn't have any issues like the ones I described, then you're probably good to go. You can call a recruiter right now and you should be good. However, if you do have any issues like the ones I described, it could be pretty hard for you to join. So you're gonna have to find a recruiter who's willing to put in the work and you're also gonna have to put in a lot of extra work to make this process happen. Like I said, if you wanna hear more about Air Force Lifestyle and Benefits, make sure you go over to my channel and subscribe. And like I always say, stay beautiful and stay classy. Until next time, check me out.