‘Sponsorship should not be hinged on past salary’

Past salary should not be considered when determining whether or not a nonresident worker is eligible to sponsor an immediate relative in the Commonwealth, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

Assistant attorney general Kevin Lynch, legal counsel for the Department of Labor, issued this clarification at the request of the Division of Employment Services and Training, which sought interpretation of an Immigration statute regarding salary review for nonresident workers seeking to sponsor an immediate relative in the CNMI.

The statute states that a nonresident worker is eligible to sponsor an immediate relative in the CNMI if he or she is paid an annual wage or salary of over $20,000 and posts a bond or other surety guaranteeing the repatriation of the relative.

In a legal opinion, Lynch quoted DEST as suggesting that a worker must have already earned a salary of more than $20,000 per year before they were eligible to sponsor immediate relatives.

Lynch said this was not correct.

“[T]o determine eligibility of a nonresident worker to sponsor an immediate relative, it is necessary to look only at the nonresident worker’s present salary. Past salary is not a consideration,” he said.

Lynch explained that the intention of the statute was to make sure that nonresident workers were capable of supporting any immediate relatives they bring in without any burden to the Commonwealth.

“To read the statute as requiring that the nonresident worker must have already earned a salary of more than $20,000 in a year is to impose a one-year waiting period before allowing immediate relatives to accompany the nonresident worker. This obviously has the effect of separating spouses from each other or parents from their children during this period. It seems very unlikely that the Legislature intended this result,” said Lynch.

He also urged DEST to report to the Division of Immigration any cases of nonresident workers who were previously eligible to sponsor an immediate relative, but who lost that status by transferring to a job with a salary of $20,000 or less per year.

“This is a matter to be reported to the Director of Immigration if it comes to the attention of the Department of Labor. As this is primarily an Immigration statute, any further action to be taken as a result of the change in salary is up to Immigration,” Lynch said.