(MV) — Law360 on Wednesday reported that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security “is on track to implement a program allowing pre-screened Chinese nationals to travel to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands visa-free for up to 14 days….”
According to Law360, a legal news service based in New York City, DHS, in an interim final rule, stated that “the program will begin after it puts in place an automated authorization process allowing travelers to both Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands from certain other countries to submit a visa waiver form electronically and receive an electronic travel authorization before embarking on their travels.”
DHS said “it was establishing the program based on recommendations made pursuant to so-called 902 Consultations — authorized by Section 902 of the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States — that the Trump administration had entered into with the territory’s government concerning the territory’s access to the Chinese tourist market.”
In the interim rule slated to be published in Thursday’s Federal Register, DHS said, “In the secretary’s discretion, and in accordance with the applicable recommendation from the 902 Consultations, DHS is promulgating regulations with respect to the inclusion of the [People’s Republic of China] in obtaining a visa waiver.”
Law360 said the program — called the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Economic Vitality & Security Travel Authorization Program, or CNMI EVS-TAP — is a “restricted sub-program” of an underlying Guam-Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands visa waiver program, or G-CNMI VWP.
Law360 said China is not among the countries eligible for the visa waiver program. Eligible countries are Australia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and the United Kingdom, Law360 added.
DHS stated that “while it had concluded in 2009 that Chinese nationals traveling to the Northern Mariana Islands provided a ‘significant economic benefit,’ such benefits were outweighed by political and security concerns. It said Russia was ineligible for similar reasons,” Law360 said.
“Chinese nationals were eventually permitted to enter the Northern Mariana Islands for business or pleasure for up to 45 days, provided they met certain conditions, after then-Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano allowed the agency in 2009 to consider requests for discretionary parole on a case-by-case basis.
“She allowed the same for eligible Russian nationals seeking to enter both the Northern Marians Islands and Guam, but that has since been revoked.”
In 2018, the CNMI and the representative of then-President Donald Trump initiated the 902 Consultation process, Law360 said.
The consultations took place in early 2019, resulting “in four recommendations, the first of which was to modify parole policies with enhanced security provisions by first reducing the maximum time nationals could be paroled into the Northern Mariana Islands to 14 days, then implementing an automated travel authorization process for the G-CNMI VWP generally,” Law360 said.
It quoted DHS as saying that it “completed the first part of the first recommendation by reducing the period Chinese nationals could be paroled into the U.S. in October 2019 and that its new rule amends G-CNMI VWP regulations to require travelers to submit the form electronically and receive an electronic travel authorization before traveling.”
DHS said “automating the process will not only increase national security but also shorten wait times for travelers arriving at a port of entry, which could ‘lead to overall traveler satisfaction.’ ”
In addition, “the change would also save U.S. Customs and Border Protection time and money and allow CBP officers to spend more time focusing on a traveler’s purpose for visiting the territories rather than on processing forms, data entry, and hard copy storage.”
As for the CNMI EVS-TAP, DHS said “the new program will begin 45 days after a subsequent notification is published in the Federal Register. It also said that while it was not required to provide public notice or a chance to comment, it was doing so nonetheless.”
Some U.S. lawmakers have asked DHS to end the China visa-waiver program for the CNMI, saying the policy “has made the islands vulnerable to a plethora of problems including drug trafficking, illegal immigration, and organized crime.”
For their part, the CNMI business community, the local Senate and the delegate to the U.S Congress, Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, have urged DHS to implement CNMI EVS-TAP.
The local business community said the “formal promulgation of [the EVS-TAP] rule would aid in increasing the level of passenger screening that is possible and ensure that only direct flights from China are authorized under the EVS-TAP. This would create firm safeguards against overstaying visitors or any potential future rise in birth tourism, as existing flights would be operated and controlled by travel groups that could be held accountable for their passengers.”
In his letter to DHS, Kilili said the rationale for the program was “well documented” in the 902 Consultations report, and that then-DHS Secretary Napolitano “had recognized the importance of maintaining a flow of tourism from China to the Northern Mariana Islands.”
Sablan said tourism to the islands has not yet recovered from the Covid-19 restrictions, and that “in the long run our islands must reestablish what has traditionally been the mainstay of our economy.”
CNMI business community and senators believe that EVS-TAP will help revive the islands’ only industry, tourism.
Prior to the pandemic, China was the CNMI’s second largest tourism market with over 185,000 arrivals in 2019. Since then, China arrivals have plummeted to 18,550 in 2020; 12 in 2021; and 186 in 2022.
