Yesterday, customers started to arrive as early as 7 a.m., she added.
Most of them were mailing their CW1 applications while others were sending their Christmas packages.
Marshall, who assisted customers, said they maximize their limited personnel to accommodate all their clients.
“We’re just doing the best we can. I don’t have extra employees but we just have to work on what we have,” she told Variety yesterday afternoon.
An employer, who declined to be identified, said he had to file the CW1 application only yesterday because of previous confusion about the requirements.
Another employer said they had to reconsider hiring and terminating workers, thus the delay in filing their CW1 applications.
Marshall said they had to close early to allow for the processing of mail.
The staff still have an hour of work after they close the window for customers, she added.
All of them get only a half-hour lunch break to catch up with the long line of customers.
Marshall said she was thankful to her personnel and the customers who were “very patient.”
“Everybody has been fantastic,” she said, and there has been no major problem since they started accommodating hundreds of customers each day.
Extended service hours
In response to a request from Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, USPS agreed to extend the retail operating hours at its Chalan Kanoa branch through the evening of Nov. 28, 2011, according to a statement from the lawmaker.
He said the extended hours are to accommodate the increased volume of mail anticipated prior to the Nov, 28 filing deadline mandated under U.S. Public Law 110-229, or the federalization law, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services regulations.
Sablan said he made a request to USPS on Friday, Nov. 18, for additional service hours in response to a concern raised by a constituent that the existing hours may be insufficient to process the large volume of outgoing mail related to the USCIS Nov. 28 filing deadline.
“I really appreciate the willingness of our local Northern Mariana Islands postmaster, Amy Marshall, her staff, and her colleagues in Hawaii, including Leo B. Tudela, to address the needs of our community and provide this extraordinary service in recognition of the importance of this deadline,” Sablan said.
“This will help to mitigate what are certain to be long lines and extended waiting times at the post office over the coming days.”
In addition to the extended retail service hours, Gregory Kawasaki, the Honolulu District’s acting manager of post office operations which oversees the Saipan post office, offered Sablan his assurance that all mail deposited at the Chalan Kanoa branch after retail service hours but prior to midnight, Nov. 28, 2011 will receive a Nov. 28, 2011 postmark.
According to Sablan, USPS indicated that it will continue to monitor the situation on Tinian and Rota, but do not anticipate a volume of such mail on those islands that would require additional hours.
Kawasaki also reminded the congressman that postal service customers are encouraged to utilize the Capital Hill and San Vicente branch post offices.
