More questions answered

A public outreach on the final worker rule on Saturday answered more questions from the audience of over a hundred, but some expressed worries in case their employers’ petition for a Commonwealth-only worker status is denied.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials tried to calm their fears, saying USCIS approves more applications than deny them.

“Approval outweighs denial rate,” USCIS community relations officer Janna Evans told the crowd in the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe on Saturday morning.

Saturday’s public outreach marked the 20th presentation that the USCIS team held in the CNMI since Sept. 20. The team is led by USCIS district director David Gulick.

A member of the audience asked whether a denial of a CW petition can be appealed, to which USCIS said “yes.”

The fee associated with filing an appeal of a CW petition denial is $600.

Upon hearing the high cost of the fee, some audience members became more anxious.

Another one asked whether employers can reimburse the application fee and the CNMI education funding fee. USCIS said “no,” because the agency is a fee-based organization.

Employees who already underwent biometrics for an advance parole or for other requirements of other agencies such as the FBI or the military still have to undergo biometrics for a CW application.

Another audience member asked whether a CW-1 visa holder will have his U.S. tourist visa—a B1/B2 visa—revoked by the U.S. State Department.

Gulick said USCIS does not have an answer to this yet, because the decision rests with the State Department which is expected to soon issue its rules and procedures on the CW-1 visa.

“We don’t know yet. It’s going to be up to the Department of State, whether they will do it automatically or whether they will do it on a case by case basis,” Gulick told the crowd.

He said in his many years of experience, it is not unusual that some categories have two types of visas.

For example, a student visa holder can also have a tourist visa, and a diplomat can have a diplomat visa and a tourist visa.

But Gulick said if the State Department allows a person to have both a CW-1 visa and a B1/B2 visa and that person returns from a vacation outside the U.S. to work in the CNMI, that person needs to make sure that he uses his CW-1 visa and not his B1/B2 visa.

If the B1/B2 visa is used and not the CW-1 visa, then that person cannot work in the CNMI because he was admitted as a tourist and not as a foreign worker.

Still, others in the audience said it is unfair that the B1/B2 visa will be revoked when they obtained it years back and had nothing to do with the CNMI’s immigration issues.

Bong Martinez, one of those who attended the session, said the outreach was a great help not only to him and his wife but also for other people. He recommended others in the community to attend the remaining sessions.

He said he and his wife Birhen went to the USCIS Application Service Center in June or July to apply for a parole, because his wife is considered an immediate relative of a Freely Associated States citizen. Mr. Martinez is from Pohnpei.

“We were told she cannot apply for a parole in place because she had an umbrella permit. Had we were told she could apply for one, we won’t have this problem now, when the CW rule was issued and everybody is asking all these questions. Now we got an answer that my wife could get a parole,” Mr. Martinez said.

Pastor Roger Abe of Saipan Community Church said like many others in the community, he’s still groping in the dark. He himself has yet to obtain an appropriate visa.

Ione Belza, who has been a contract worker since 1995, said while she thinks her employer will apply for a CW status for her, there are many others she knows who are jobless, some of whom just lost their employment because of the weak economy.

She said she hopes there will be humanitarian consideration for foreign workers who have children who are in the middle of studies.

“Maybe the federal government could allow them until the end of classes in June, for example, to look for jobs,” she said.

The USCIS outreach will wrap up on Thursday.