US extends parole program for Pinoys, other foreigners in CNMI
The United States government has extended for two years a humanitarian parole program to allow an estimated 1,000 Filipinos and other foreign nationals who are immediate relatives of US citizens to legally stay in the US Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.
Certain “stateless” individuals are also covered in the extended parole program.
The program, for example, allows former overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who lost their jobs when the CNMI economy tanked, to legally stay in the CNMI so long as they are parents, spouses or immediate relatives of US citizens.
The parole program, now extended up to Dec. 31, 2016, is supposed to expire by Dec. 31, 2014.
Home to more than 10,000 OFWs, the CNMI is a U. territory in the Western Pacific some three hours away from the Philippines.
US Congressman Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan, the CNMI’s nonvoting delegate to the US House of Representatives, said on Saturday that without the two-year extension, CNMI families with non-US citizens are at risk of separation.
“In our island culture, nothing is more important than family. That is why under Commonwealth immigration law, the immediate relatives of US citizens were allowed to live here in the Northern Mariana Islands,” said Sablan, who recently secured another term in US Congress in a landslide election victory.
But the delegate urges all families who have some US and some non-US members to “keep working towards a permanent status.”
“USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) established the parole policy for immediate relatives in 2011 and has now extended the policy twice. But there is no guarantee that parole will continue to be offered after 2016,” Sablan said.
Some remaining jobless Filipinos in the CNMI, however, hope that the humanitarian parole will be extended until their US citizen children can start petitioning them to become green card holders.
The US Department of Homeland Security’s USCIS announced the two-year parole program extension on Friday in Washington, D.C. (Saturday, Philippine time).
Marie Thérèse Sebrechts, USCIS supervisory public affairs officer for the West Coast, said this parole extension “will allow the immediate relative to remain with the U.S. citizen lawfully in the CNMI.”
But parole does not authorize employment, Sebrechts stressed.
“Immediate relatives must, as before, obtain an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) by submitting Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, or obtain work authorization as a CW-1 CNMI-Only Transitional Worker or other employment-based nonimmigrant status under federal immigration law,” Sebrechts said.
USCIS said the two-year extension does not cover anyone other than the immediate relatives of US citizens and certain “stateless” individuals.
The federal agency, however, said it may grant parole on a case-by-case basis based on the individual circumstances presented.
USCIS has exercised parole authority on a case-by-case basis in the CNMI since 2009 for special situations.
The CNMI is the second to the last US territories to control its own immigration. In 2009, its immigration became under US federal control.
Filipinos and other foreign nationals have to meet at least three criteria to apply for an extension of their parole.
They must reside in the CNMI; they must be a legal spouse, an unmarried child under 21, or parent (regardless of the age of the child) of a US citizen referred to as an “immediate relative”; and have been previously granted parole in order to follow this simplified extension request procedure.
USCIS, the agency within DHS responsible for immigration benefits, said there is no fee for the parole extension request. —KBK, GMA News
Certain “stateless” individuals are also covered in the extended parole program.
The program, for example, allows former overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who lost their jobs when the CNMI economy tanked, to legally stay in the CNMI so long as they are parents, spouses or immediate relatives of US citizens.
The parole program, now extended up to Dec. 31, 2016, is supposed to expire by Dec. 31, 2014.
Home to more than 10,000 OFWs, the CNMI is a U. territory in the Western Pacific some three hours away from the Philippines.
US Congressman Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan, the CNMI’s nonvoting delegate to the US House of Representatives, said on Saturday that without the two-year extension, CNMI families with non-US citizens are at risk of separation.
“In our island culture, nothing is more important than family. That is why under Commonwealth immigration law, the immediate relatives of US citizens were allowed to live here in the Northern Mariana Islands,” said Sablan, who recently secured another term in US Congress in a landslide election victory.
But the delegate urges all families who have some US and some non-US members to “keep working towards a permanent status.”
“USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Services) established the parole policy for immediate relatives in 2011 and has now extended the policy twice. But there is no guarantee that parole will continue to be offered after 2016,” Sablan said.
Some remaining jobless Filipinos in the CNMI, however, hope that the humanitarian parole will be extended until their US citizen children can start petitioning them to become green card holders.
The US Department of Homeland Security’s USCIS announced the two-year parole program extension on Friday in Washington, D.C. (Saturday, Philippine time).
Marie Thérèse Sebrechts, USCIS supervisory public affairs officer for the West Coast, said this parole extension “will allow the immediate relative to remain with the U.S. citizen lawfully in the CNMI.”
But parole does not authorize employment, Sebrechts stressed.
“Immediate relatives must, as before, obtain an Employment Authorization Document (EAD) by submitting Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, or obtain work authorization as a CW-1 CNMI-Only Transitional Worker or other employment-based nonimmigrant status under federal immigration law,” Sebrechts said.
USCIS said the two-year extension does not cover anyone other than the immediate relatives of US citizens and certain “stateless” individuals.
The federal agency, however, said it may grant parole on a case-by-case basis based on the individual circumstances presented.
USCIS has exercised parole authority on a case-by-case basis in the CNMI since 2009 for special situations.
The CNMI is the second to the last US territories to control its own immigration. In 2009, its immigration became under US federal control.
Filipinos and other foreign nationals have to meet at least three criteria to apply for an extension of their parole.
They must reside in the CNMI; they must be a legal spouse, an unmarried child under 21, or parent (regardless of the age of the child) of a US citizen referred to as an “immediate relative”; and have been previously granted parole in order to follow this simplified extension request procedure.
USCIS, the agency within DHS responsible for immigration benefits, said there is no fee for the parole extension request. —KBK, GMA News
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