Previous Story
New 30-day deadline for alien workers clarified
|
Posted on Jul 30 2008
The Department of Labor’s 30-day deadline for alien workers to find employment has been clarified as a period in which the prospective employee is expected to attain a form expressing the employer’s intention to hire him or her.
Labor Administrative Hearing Officer Jerry Cody, in an interview with the Saipan Tribune yesterday, said if a guest worker finds a new employer to complete the employer intent form within the 30-day period, a complete application could be filed later.
Cody said he is aware of the concerns of foreign workers who believe that 30 days is not enough time to find a job.
“I certainly understand their feeling that 30 days is not a great amount of time. Keep in mind, though, that you don’t have to have the complete application ready to be filed in 30 days,” he said.
Labor used to have a system that gave employers and workers 45 days to file complete applications. The system caused filing difficulties.
Cody said if there is any good news for the workers under the new system, it is that the 30-day deadline is not a deadline to file a complete application.
“It is just to find an employer who will commit to hire alien workers sufficiently so that they will sign the employer intent form,” he said.
After the worker presents an employer intent form to Labor within the 30-day period, they are typically told to return to the Labor Hearing Office in about three weeks, he said.
Cody said Labor assumes, however, that the employment is a job that has been posted on Labor’s website and is thus not a houseworker position.
“The non-houseworkers are given a date to come back on a Wednesday to the hearing office, which is usually three weeks later. And that is to give enough time for the 14-day posting of the job vacancy announcement,” he said.
Cody stressed that employers who sign the employer intent form but do not post the job on Labor’s website would cause filing difficulties and delay the submission of the employee’s complete application.
