Many left the event with unanswered questions and mounting uncertainty.
Workers from the Philippines, Japan, China, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand, India, among other nations, asked questions to David Gulick, district director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency under DHS, during the two-hour forum.
But the time seemed short to answer their individual questions.
Gulick’s main message to the migrants and their employers: CNMI-issued labor or umbrella permits are not legally recognized to allow one to reenter the commonwealth or resume work after leaving the islands for whatever reasons.
If the workers don’t leave the CNMI, the federal government will honor their labor or umbrella permits until their expiration date, which is on or about Nov. 27, 2011.
To be able to work in the commonwealth and freely leave, a guest worker should get, through their employers, the CW-1 visa from the USCIS or any other available employment-based status.
Their employers must petition for their CW-1 status. If a notice of approval has been granted, the migrant can then apply for a CW-visa from his country of origin.
Other employment-based statutes and visas must also be applied by employers on behalf of their foreign workers.
The CW-1 visa is recommended for guest workers who otherwise would not qualify for other types of status.
Janna Evans, regional lead for community relations of the USCIS Western Region, said DHS is scheduled to hold a two-week educational forum for the affected workers, their employers and the public about the coming changes to the islands’ immigration system.
The educational forum will be split into morning and evening sessions starting Dec. 4 and will be held at the multi-purpose center.
Evans who estimated the crowd turnout at over 1,000 said a team of outreach officers will be coming to Saipan to answer questions from the community about immigration.
Materials about the new interim final regulations for transitional worker program have been printed in English, Filipino, Chinese and Japanese.
The Korean translation was still incomplete.
The materials will be printed in seven other languages.
At the forum, Japanese-owned companies like hotels sent representatives to ask questions.
One company asked what type of visa should visiting Japanese executives get if they want to briefly visit and work on Saipan.
Others, particularly those from China, expressed fear that the regulations would negatively impact their existing U.S. visas like B1 which is given for tourism purposes and B2 for business-related visits.
Gulick said a B1, B2 visa does not preclude one from getting a CW status.
He also stressed Koreans and Japanese whose countries are included in the Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver can enter the islands hassle-free but they are not allowed to work.
“Tourists cannot be employed. There’s no exemption to that,” he said.
He advised the workers to keep their CNMI-issued labor or umbrella permits, especially if they are not leaving the islands.
“It is important that you maintain that,” he said.
Employers who declined to be identified said they want an assurance that their nominated migrant workers for employment-based status in the U.S. would be given preference since they are merely conversion and not new hires.
DHS is accepting public comments regarding the interim final regulations for the transitional worker program over the next 30 days.
Gulick said those will be reviewed before the final regulations are adopted. The changes based on those comments, however, are projected to be made within the next six to nine months.
