The United Workers Movement NMI said yesterday they will ask Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan to include long-term foreign workers in the groups of individuals who will be allowed to stay in the CNMI until 2014.
Sablan filed H.R. 3658 last week to include Chinese and Russian tourists in the joint visa waiver program for 180 days beyond the Nov. 28 startup date for federal border control in the CNMI.
H.R. 3658 also grants immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and persons who are CNMI permanent residents the right to live in the CNMI for a full five years from Nov. 28, 2009.
The “immediate relatives of U.S. citizens” in Sablan's bill include persons married to U.S. citizens and parents of children who are U.S. citizens because they were born here.
CNMI permanent residents are persons who have lived in the CNMI since at least 1981.
Yesterday, United Workers Movement NMI president Rabby Syed said they will appeal to Sablan to include foreign workers who have been legally in the CNMI for at least five years.
“We thank Congressman Sablan for introducing the bill and giving humanitarian consideration to IRs and CNMI permanent residents. But we also would like to ask him to include guest workers who have been here for a long time but don't have U.S. citizen children,” Syed told Saipan Tribune.
Under Sablan's bill, both groups could work and come and go from the CNMI without the need for any further permission or visa from the United States.
Syed said the workers group also hails Sablan for including in his bill a provision that allows lower application fees for U.S. citizens with immediate relatives. The bill also waives minimum income requirements for these families.
The United Workers Movement NMI, which is composed of workers from the Philippines, China, Bangladesh, Korea and other countries, also supports the inclusion of Russian and Chinese tourists in the Guam-CNMI visa waiver program.
“If we have more tourists, then it will be better for the economy and for the workers,” Syed added.
Sablan also introduced last week a bill delaying by one year or until Dec. 1, 2010, the implementation of P.L. 110-229 in the CNMI.
Federalization is set to start on Nov. 28.
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