Visitors may find it hard to enter CNMI due to federal law – report

MANILA, Philippines - With the implementation of the federal immigration law next year, foreign visitors of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, including family members of CNMI guest workers may find it hard to enter the US territory.

Marianas Variety on Tuesday reported that according CNMI Immigration Director Melvin Grey, the law’s implementation would result in restrictions on the entry of visitors to the Marianas.

Grey reportedly explained that under the law, a relative of a Filipino guest worker for instance who wants to go to the CNMI would have to wait for two months before the US Embassy in Manila decides on his or her entry application.

The CNMI is home to about 10,000 documented Filipino workers.

The report quoted Grey as saying that over 90 percent of these applications could be rejected.

He said that under CNMI laws, it would only take seven days to process a visitor’s entry permit. Afterwards, if the permit is released, the visitor could already fly to the CNMI within two weeks.

The Variety also said that according to Grey, the federal law would require guest workers to leave the territory after working there for three years. Under CNMI laws, guest workers won't need to leave the territory, but only renew their contracts yearly.

Nonresidents should realize that “nobody gets anything [from the federal immigration system] and everybody gets hurt," the report quoted Grey as saying.

President Bush’s signing into law of S. 2739 or the "Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008" brings the CNMI under the federal immigration system.

The law grants the CNMI a non-voting delegate to the US House of Representatives. CNMI voters will elect their first delegate to the US Congress in November.

The CNMI is the only US territory that has independent immigration policy.

There are four options for CNMI employers under the new law: Petition their foreign workers for H visas; acquire temporary CNMI-only non-immigrant work permits; seek temporary protection from deportation of existing foreign workers; and petition the foreign workers for nonimmigrant status and employment-based permanent immigration status under the same procedures as other US employers.

Under the law, the US secretary of Homeland Security must work with the State secretary, the attorney general, the Labor secretary, and the Interior secretary in establishing the transition program, which will take effect from June 1, 2009 to Dec. 31, 2014.

Between now and June next year, local labor and immigration laws still apply to the CNMI.

During the transition period, there will be no limit on the number of workers who can enter the CNMI on H visas. - GMANews.TV

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