In a media conference held yesterday at the USCIS office in Garapan, USCIS Honolulu District Director David G. Gulick said, “We have rejected 12 petitions so far as of Nov. 10.”
He said these 12 petitions had been returned by USCIS to the petitioners and they will have to file petitions using the new forms.
Gulick also cited the submission of incorrect fee as another basis for rejection.
He said, “One case was too much money and one has no money at all.”
Gulick said some petitioners filed using the regular I-129 form when they should have filed the I-129CW form.
As of Nov. 10, Gulick said they have accepted 368 I-129CW petitions with 704 total beneficiaries.
Of this number, Gulick said nine workers were from Tinian and 22 were from Rota.
He also said there were 100 employers who filed the petitions.
He also said they have received 68 E-2C — CNMI investor — petitions bringing their total to 83 received to date.
Gulick said they were expecting over 400.
Of the 83 total E-2C petitions, 12 have been approved while three have been denied.
Asked on the reasons for the denial, Gulick said, “I have no idea.”
He also reminded the public that USCIS has an updated Q&A on the web which includes nine new questions as a result of their outreach in the CNMI last September.
USCIS is hosting a web conference on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 17-19 at 8 a.m. to be hosted by USCIS Western Region Community Relations Office Janna Evans and Honolulu Community Relations Officer Darlene Kutara.
USCIS is encouraging the public to submit questions in advance to [email protected] and write “Question for CNMI Webinar” in the subject line.
In order to connect to the webinar, the public is advised to connect to https://connect16.uc.att.com/uscis/meet/?ExEventID=84170280.
For more information, go to www.uscis.gov.
