USCIS confirms sending officials to CNMI for CW rule

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it will be sending representatives to the CNMI to help in the education campaign once the Commonwealth-only transitional worker regulations are published.

USCIS is one of the component agencies of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Marie Thérèse Sebrechts, regional media manager for USCIS, said the outreach team includes USCIS district director David Gulick, a community relations officer, a press officer, an officer from the California Service Center division that handles CNMI applications, and staff members from the USCIS legal counsel and policy who are familiar with the CNMI regulations.

Team members will be coming from Hawaii, California and Washington, D.C., Sebrechts added.

Sebrechts said the USCIS does not yet have a date when the regulations will be published, but as in the past, USCIS will send out notice to the media and community organizations at that time.

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget completed on Aug. 9 the review of the long-awaited CW final rule, ahead of the Sept. 15 review period deadline for the agency.

CNMI officials and community members said they hope DHS will soon publish the regulations in the Federal Register, with three months to go before Nov. 27.

That is the last day of the two-year period allowed under the federalization law wherein workers can still remain in the CNMI using a Commonwealth-issued permit.

After that, foreign workers need to have a U.S. employment visa such as a transitional CW visa or an H visa, or they could face deportation.

Sebrechts said USCIS fully anticipates that the regulations will be published before Nov. 28, 2011.

When asked whether foreign workers will still be subjected to advance parole and parole under the final CW rule, Sebrechts said USCIS has used advance parole and parole-in-place as temporary measures in the CNMI because no visa classification under the INA allowed legitimate workers to continue to travel and return to the CNMI after traveling internationally or within the United States without a visa.

“Advance parole will not normally be considered for individuals who have received or who may be eligible for CW status in the CNMI, as they should normally obtain the nonimmigrant visa abroad for their return to the CNMI,” she said.

The fee for Form I-29CW, as published in 2010, is $325. There is also a mandatory CNMI education funding fee of $150 fee per beneficiary.

Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan reiterated that the CW rules are separate from proposals to improve the immigration status of long-term aliens in the CNMI.