“The person who leaves the CNMI must have the appropriate visa to come back if he is not a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident,” said Michael Aytes, the acting director of USCIS, which now has an office on Saipan.
He said airlines will require returning guest workers to have the appropriate U.S. visa.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, he added, will inform airlines about the documentation that returning guest workers must have before they can board the plane headed to the CNMI.
The federalization law will take effect on June 1, but U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano may delay its implementation for 180 days.
According to David Gulick, regional director of USCIS, “The first thing that people should do when they have [an emergency] situation…or…a medical problem and they need to leave and they don’t know what’s going to happen or how to come back — the first thing that they should do is contact our office…. They might also contact our sister agency, Customs and Border Protection.”
Gulick said under the U.S. immigration law, “people need U.S. visas” to enter the CNMI.
“There are circumstances when, if they can’t acquire a visa, that either USCIS or CBP can exercise a special authority which will let a person come in physically into the United States. It’s called parole. People can read about parole on our Web site (http://www.cbp.gov),” he added.
Gulick said under the federalization law, the commonwealth can no longer host foreign workers under its own labor and immigration system.
“When Congress wrote the changes, they didn’t give the CNMI a status under the immigration law. That’s why when they leave, they have to come back under a new immigration status under the [U.S.] immigration law,” he added.
