The Torres administration sees it as good news the announcement of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that it has opened the application period for the new CNMI long-term resident status.<\/p>\n
In the midst of the economical struggles the CNMI government is currently facing, the announcement is \u201cwelcoming and beautiful news\u201d for the CNMI, said press secretary Kevin Bautista.<\/p>\n
He added that Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and Lt. Gov. Arnold I. Palacios have supported the long-term status for qualified longtime nonresidents for years. <\/p>\n
Bautista said that Torres was a member of the CNMI Senate when it recommended improved status for long-term aliens in 2011.<\/p>\n
According to Bautista, the NMI Long-Term Legal Residents Relief Act signed by President Donald Trump on June 25, 2019, was a vital part of the Torres administration\u2019s recommendations at the 902 consultations, and their work with the White House, Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP), and other members of Congress.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe governor\u2019s office will do everything it can to support USCIS in making sure that this [law will be implemented] as smoothly and efficiently as possible so that the qualified families can benefit from it in the right way,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Bautista added that the news was special to him personally, being the son of immigrant workers who have built a life in the CNMI. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, I know I am talking on behalf of the administration, but as a Filipino-American in this administration, it means a lot to see this policy now being implemented by USCIS,\u201d Bautista said. <\/p>\n
According to Saipan Tribune archives, the application period for those seeking the new CNMI long-term resident status opened on Feb. 19, 2020.<\/p>\n
Eligible aliens will have 180 days to apply for the new status, which was created by the Northern Mariana Islands Long-Term Legal Residents Relief Act (48 U.S.C. 1806(e)(6)), signed by Trump on June 25, 2019.<\/p>\n
Applicants must file Form I-955, Application for CNMI Long-Term Resident Status, together with Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, by Aug. 17, 2020. CNMI long-term resident status is not the same thing as lawful permanent residence and does not lead to lawful permanent resident status.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Torres administration sees it as good news the announcement of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318007\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}