After signing the proclamation designating December as World Awareness Month 2011, Inos told reporters that USCIS Honolulu District Director David Gulick advised him that some $22,000 was transferred to the CNMI Treasury.
This represented the payment for the initial batch of CW applicants.
In a separate interview, Finance Secretary Larrisa Larson said they are “expecting to receive the education fee collection.”
She said they are still reviewing the records so she could not confirm the amount mentioned by Gulick. She sid they will have the final number soon.
In an email, Press Secretary Angel A. Demapan said there is still no concrete payment schedule as to when USCIS will be making the fund transfer.
“We will continue to monitor the payments coming in as these funds are already appropriated by the FY 2012 budget law to Public School System,” he said.
He added that the administration has not received data relating to the updated number of petitions submitted a few days before the deadline, so the administration does not know yet whether a significant increase occurred during the last minute surge.
He said individuals qualified for the one-year parole will increase the education fees once they apply for CW petitions or the authorization to work.
“Still, there is no concrete data to support just how many would end up filing CW petitions,” he said.
House Floor Leader George N. Camacho, Ind.-Saipan, said the fund transfer is welcome news for the CNMI government.
He hopes that with the USCIS’ administrative remedy that gives some nonresidents up to Dec. 2012 to remain island, the education fee will increase.
“We are only in the first two months. So the one-year extension provided for [IR’s] will help raise the education fee,” he said.
Rep. Joseph M. Palacios, R-Saipan, said he hopes that the funds will be used as intended.
He said he is not really excited about it but it’s good that USCIS has remitted the fees.
