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<p>Recruitment of Commonwealth citizens has never stopped. Prior to the COVID-19 Pandemic,
both the Army and the Royal Air Force (RAF) had received large numbers of applications
from Commonwealth citizens. The Army therefore stopped accepting new applications
in September 2019 and the RAF stopped accepting applications from outside the UK in
November 2019. The Royal Navy (RN)/Royal Marines (RM) has continued to accept new
applications.</p><p>When the COVID-19 restrictions were implemented in March 2020,
the RN/RM and RAF continued with the selection and initial training of all applicants
who were already in the UK, including those from the Commonwealth. For those applicants
based outside the UK, they continued to be proactively managed virtually, but their
applications and the recruitment process could not be completed until candidates were
once again able to fly to the UK and could meet any COVID-19 restrictions placed on
their entry, such as quarantine measures.</p><p>The Army temporarily paused all face-to-face
selection until June and all Basic Training until May, but applicants continued to
be managed and nurtured. Since selection and training has resumed, the Army has continued
to process those applicants already in the UK, and those who had applied prior to
September 2019. The Army continues to have enough applications from Commonwealth citizens
to meet demand for the current Recruiting Year, and will not therefore be accepting
new applications, other than for the Royal Corps of Music.</p>
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