PROCESSING times for I-129 CW petitions, including those for CWs “touching back” in their home country after three years in the CNMI, are now mostly completed within a month, U.S. Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan reported in his latest e-newsletter, citing U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
“Touchback, a requirement of the 2018 Northern Marianas U.S. Workforce Act, only began to kick in for most workers last year; and there are concerns it may be a hardship on employers and workers,” Kilili said.
“Most I-129CW petitions had been taking from three to five months to process, but since the start of fiscal year 2024 on October 1, 2023, 80 percent of the petitions are completed within one month,” he added.
Processing times can be monitored online at https://egov.uscis.gov/processing-times/.
Kilili said a goal of the 2018 law was “to bring more U.S. workers into the Marianas labor force; and since 2018 that number has increased by 2,285. At the same time, employers continued to have access to CW workers. The cap on CW visas in 2023 was 11,000. USCIS issued 5,789 CW visas for that year.”
A representative of an agency engaged in processing I-129 CW petitions said there are more than 30 CWs in different job positions employed by various companies who left the CNMI in November but have yet to return.
In a separate interview, an employee, who also declined to be identified, said four of her CW friends who left the CNMI in September to comply with the touchback provision are still off-island.
