Visa waivers may extend beyond 2014

The U.S. Department of Defense is anticipating a need to extend the 2014 deadline for Guam’s exemption from the national cap on temporary work visas.

Retired Gen. David Bice, executive director for the Joint Guam Program Office, told a U.S. congressional hearing yesterday that the visa waiver provision of the recently signed CNMI immigration law will help Guam meet the labor demands of the construction boom related to the military relocation to the island.

But Bice noted that, although an extension beyond the 2014 deadline is possible, the current law allows it only for the Northern Marianas, not for Guam.

“We are grateful to Congress for this visa waiver provision, but may need to extend the waiver beyond 2014 should program timelines necessitate,” Bice said. He also said the Defense Department and JGPO would be in a better position to say if an extension is required once construction activity begins in Guam in early 2010.

Bice was one of the witnesses at a hearing conducted by the U.S. House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs yesterday at 4am Saipan time. The focus of the hearing was “Identifying Labor Solutions for the Guam Military Buildup.”

U.S. Virgin Islands Rep. Donna Christensen, chairwoman of the House subcommittee, said the hearing was held to assure Guam residents that “they will be the first to fill jobs and that the federal government is assisting their institutions to prepare [them for the military buildup].”

Under the proposed Guam military buildup, approximately 8,000 U.S. Marines and 9,000 dependents will be transferred from Okinawa, Japan, to Guam. Construction of new defense facilities is slated to start in 2010, with the relocation to be completed in 2014. The cost of new infrastructure to be built could exceed $10 billion.

According to Bice’s testimony, the Department of Defense estimates there are 5,600 construction workers currently available in Guam today. A study by the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, the Defense Department’s construction execution agent on Guam, estimates that 6,000 to 20,000 off island workers will be required to reach the necessary work force strength.

The NAVFAC study says that approximately 6,000 workers will migrate to Guam from the continental United States or Hawaii to support the construction effort. The remainder would come from either the CNMI, the Freely Associated States, or from other foreign locations as non-immigrant construction workers requiring H2B visas.