USCIS reiterates that people need not reapply for parole

Agnes Partola, 32, mailed her request for humanitarian parole to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Guam in mid-November. Once her parole request is granted, she would be able to stay in the CNMI legally while trying to find a new job amid a tough economy. Because she has two minor U.S. citizen children, she also hopes that the parole that will be given to her will be valid until Dec. 31, 2012. But two months since she mailed her request, Partolan has yet to hear from USCIS.

“Right now, I do not know whether they’ve even received my application. What if it was lost? Two months, and still no word from USCIS. I have been worried because I do not have any document regarding my status,” Partola told Saipan Tribune yesterday.

She is just one of the hundreds who are still waiting for USCIS to decide on their parole request since November. These are people who didn’t have any Commonwealth-only worker, or CW, petition filed on their behalf by any CNMI employer.

Partola made an InfoPass appointment for later this month to be able to personally ask a USCIS representative on Saipan about her parole application.

Rene Reyes, founding president of the Marianas Advocates for Humanitarian Affairs Ltd. or Mahal, and Rabby Syed, president of the United Workers Movement-NMI, separately said yesterday that they sympathize with hundreds of aliens who are still in limbo because USCIS has not decided on their parole requests yet.

Other nonresidents, mostly with U.S. citizen children, however, have taken a different route by reapplying for parole despite an earlier statement from USCIS that there’s no need to apply again if they’ve already applied for parole in November 2011.

USCIS regional media manager Marie Thérèse Sebrechts reiterated on Friday USCIS’ earlier statement that individuals who applied for parole in November 2011 need not apply again.

Reyes and Syed said USCIS cannot blame individuals who, because of lack of any proof of immigration status, including parole in place, have reapplied for parole.

“I am again asking USCIS to please come up with an announcement regarding pending parole applications. We ask USCIS to make a determination now on parole applications because peoples’ plans are being jeopardized. They do not know whether their application for parole is received, denied or approved. Because they don’t know, they cannot really plan and move on,” Syed said.

Reyes said that people are starting to worry about not having any information as to the status of their application so they are not taking any chances.

USCIS announced in November that it will grant, on a case-by-case basis, a one-year parole expiring on Dec. 31, 2012, for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and certain “stateless” individuals.

Most of those covered by this so-called “IR parole” are those who would benefit from Delegate Gregorio Kilili Sablan’s H.R. 1466, a bill that seeks a grant of CNMI-only resident status to four groups of people, including immediate relatives of U.S. citizens. The bill remains pending in Congress.

As for those with pending CW petitions, USCIS said it will extend their parole if their CW application has not been adjudicated by the Jan. 31, 2012, expiration of their parole.

However, USCIS has yet to release data as to how many of the over 11,000 CW petitions filed as of Dec. 9 have yet to be adjudicated.

Syed said Jan. 31 is only about two weeks away, and hopes that USCIS will soon make an announcement whether those with pending CW applications have to prepare for parole extension.

USCIS has already granted CW status and issued notices for biometrics appointments to many nonresident workers. But many have yet to receive a CW application number or a biometrics appointment as of last week.

USCIS has said people who were paroled due to an expired permit must keep their parole current in order to maintain a legal presence in the United States.