We stated in last week’s column that only aliens who are “lawfully present” in the commonwealth on Nov. 28 will be protected against removal — deportation — by federal authorities. As the CNMI’s immigration system nears its end, we are seeing a lot more people who are afraid that their secrets threaten their future here. Some of these skeletons in the closet are real threats, while others are just old bones rattling away in the night. Today we will look at skeletons of both kinds.
Not your birthday?
The most common personal secret we see is entry permits, passports and even birth certificates with the wrong birth date. Most often these belong to people who originally came to the CNMI many years ago, who at that time were too young to become overseas workers, or to be employed under U.S. law. Now decades have passed and there are drivers licenses, marriage certificates, identification cards and other documents, all with the wrong birthday on them.
Why bother to fix it? Aside from freeing the person who holds these documents from hiding anything, there is very good reason to correct the error if that person is applying for a green card or any other U.S. visa: fix the error and explain it, and there is almost never any problem. Leave it alone and get caught, and most likely that is the end of the visa application, and a bar to re-application for at least several years.
Fortunately, the wrong birthday is relatively easy to correct, although somewhat tedious. First you will need to obtain a correct birth certificate, or at least affidavits as to your real birth date from someone who should know, usually parents and family friends. You will also need to make an affidavit about the error. Then start with the passport and, once the new, correct passport is in hand, start visiting agencies to correct the birth date on your records. Some records, such as marriage certificates, are not likely to be corrected, but you can use your affidavit to explain.
Not your name?
Why would you have someone else’s name on your documents? The most common excuse goes something like, “I wasn’t old enough to work so I used my cousin’s birth certificate.” This youthful folly then sticks to the imposter long after there is any reason to maintain the lie, which was most often the result of economic necessity rather than any criminal intent. Sometimes the reason is more sinister. We know of one person who was trafficked to Saipan as a young woman, many years ago, and after getting free of the trafficker simply was too afraid to reclaim her real identity.
How do you become yourself again? As with the wrong birth date, start with your real birth certificate and, if needed, those same affidavits. Make an affidavit of your own as to your real identity, and how you came to have someone else’s. Then the hardest part: contact your government. If you are Korean, Japanese or Filipino, visit your consulate in this area and ask for help. We cannot guarantee that every government will react positively, and we have not discussed this with any of the consulates here or on Guam. But if you are not a fugitive from justice, it seems to us that each government will have a positive interest in correcting their citizens’ documentation.
So you manage to get a new passport in your own name, what next? How do you exchange an established, but wrong identity for your real one? One possibility is to go to court and have your name legally changed from the false name to the real one. It may be embarrassing, but if you have not used the false identity to commit fraud or any crime, it should work. Once the court orders your name changed, you have to start visiting all the agencies that issued documents to you, and get those changed, too. Marriage certificates? Don’t bother — you have your name change order, and you can present both together.
Not your spouse?
Some people tell us they can’t get married here — usually after several years of living with someone here, and several children — because they are already married somewhere else. Some got married, anyway, either because they thought they were legally able to marry again, or because they did not know how to dissolve the first marriage. And some people think that “common law” is the same as marriage, which it is not.
What to do? The first step is to dissolve the first marriage. This often seems difficult, especially to citizens of countries such as the Philippines, which recognizes only annulment but not divorce. However, anyone who has lived in the CNMI for two years can apply to the Commonwealth Superior Court for a divorce. Once the divorce is granted, he or she is then free to marry in the CNMI. We are not aware of any case where a person divorced here faced legal consequences in his or her home country, although a client of ours was recently convinced (by an older sister) that after his marriage here he would be arrested for bigamy when he arrived at the airport in Manila. Not true. Under the principle of international law known as “comity,” each government agrees to recognize the official acts of the others, so long as they are not done to create injustice.
But bigamy is serious crime, and it is a problem for people who have married here without dissolving their first marriages. We have found over the years that in almost every case, the best course is to finally get that divorce; and then get re-married here, because the second, bigamous marriage was void. This solution, while not perfect, has worked even in cases of green card applications, so long as there is a good explanation why the second marriage happened in good faith before the first was dissolved.
Not your boss?
Got a boss who isn’t really your boss, even though his name is on your entry permit? Do you really just find your own work and then get paid directly by the person for whom you do the work? This is called a sponsorship scheme, and it is illegal under CNMI law. The CNMI Department of Labor has been clamping down on this kind of arrangement, barring false employers of record from employing aliens, and sending the “sponsored” aliens home.
If this is you, you need to get a real employer as soon as possible. Even if you are not detected before Nov. 28, when your CNMI entry permit finally expires and you apply to join the CNMI-Only Transition Worker program administered by the U.S. Immigration & Citizenship Services, you may find yourself in trouble. If you are found to be present in the CNMI based on a misrepresentation, you will be removed — remember, “removed” means “deported” — or, at the very best, allowed voluntary departure. You may also be permanently barred from re-entry to any part of the U.S.
Your record not clean?
You’ve been detained, or arrested, or even convicted of past misbehavior. Is this a problem? Certainly in the context of applying for U.S. permanent residence it is a serious problem if you try to conceal the fact of your past brush with the law. USCIS is not terribly concerned with truly minor crimes and misdemeanors so long as the person can prove rehabilitation and good character, and the crimes do not involve drugs, sex offenses, violent felonies or what are known as crimes of moral turpitude — crimes that can be categorized as revealing a dishonest character. People who are in these categories — very generally speaking — are usually inadmissible. Even with some of these offenses, if the offense was sufficiently minor and enough time has passed, it may be possible to apply for a waiver of inadmissibility. This is a very complex area of immigration law, and each case needs to be looked at individually.
So, what are you going to do with that skeleton rattling in your closet? Many of the problems people bring to us are less trouble to deal with than people think, while some are worse. Our advice: before you start running from your past, find out if it’s really chasing you.
The information contained in this column is intended as general information only, and not as individual legal advice. Readers should obtain professional legal advice before taking action with respect to their individual situations. Readers may submit questions regarding federalization or immigration issues to the authors by email to [email protected]. Readers may also e-mail written questions through the Marianas Variety at [email protected].
