He said he earlier asked Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to allow the CNMI to continue tapping the Chinese and Russian tourism markets. “She offered to help by coming up with a creative solution,” he added, referring to the advance parole “which is very similar to having a visa.”
“It will continue as long as we continue to need it,” the governor said.
Visiting U.S. Interior Assistant Secretary Tony Babauta said he agrees that China has become an important tourism market for the CNMI.
He said there has been a great amount of effort to try to extend a similar parole authority to Guam.
The program was envisioned to be a Guam-CNMI visa waiver program, he added.
“We are hoping to be able to prove that there is no sort of threat against the U.S. by the fact that the parole authority that has been operating in the CNMI for over a year has been successful. We would like to see the program continue as one program [for both jurisdictions],” he said.
