Gulick also said, “The work authorization will expire on Nov. 28.”
He said if workers missed the deadline, then they should not continue working.
“If they had a parole, they can continue to stay. But technically, we can revoke that parole,” he said.
In a media conference Tuesday at USCIS office in Garapan on Tuesday, Gulick said those who fail to file petitions on Nov. 28, unless they have work authorization under some other provision, will need to make plans to go home.
He also said workers can be petitioned for CW-1 if they have valid CNMI permit status, with the umbrella permit as the most common example.
He added that if the workers have been granted parole, they have a valid parole status.
Those with umbrella permits were both granted parole and work authorization.
Gulick said in the final rule of the Transitional Worker program, “We made a provision for them to continue working for the CW1 employer if they file while they’re in lawful status which is Nov. 28, 2011.”
Asked if CW-1 visa would supersede B1-B2 visa, Gulick said, “When we grant you the status, we won’t cancel your B1-B2 visa, because we don’t have that authority.”
Gulick said the authority rests with the U.S. Department of State whether it will cancel the visa when workers get their CW visa when they go home.
He said the State Department has not given them a firm response in this regard.
The State Department, he said, governs the issuance of visas outside the United States.
“It is up to them to decide when a person can hold two visas,” he said.
He also said, “Our initial understanding was you could but we still haven’t received an official confirmation.”
Asked if CW-1 beneficiaries with pending petitions could still travel outside the CNMI, he said, “If you are going to travel while the petition is pending, and if you’re a grant of status applicant, you need to have the advance parole to come back.”
Gulick also said the advance parole will be effective until Jan. 31, 2012.
But those who came back as tourists are neither eligible for CW-1 nor CW-2.
For more information on filing petitions for CW-1, go to www.uscis.gov.
