USCIS to extend Jan. parole for non-adjudicated CW applicants

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will extend parole for Commonwealth-only worker applicants whose petitions have not been adjudicated by the time their parole expires on Jan. 31, barely two weeks from now, according to USCIS regional media manager Marie Thérèse Sebrechts.

USCIS has already granted CW status and issued notices for biometrics appointments to many nonresident workers. However, there’s still no telling how many of the over 11,000 aliens who were petitioned for CW status as of Dec. 9 may need to extend their paroles that expire on Jan. 31.

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.

Rene Reyes, founding president of the Marianas Advocates for Humanitarian Affairs Ltd. or Mahal, said yesterday that the greater concern is among those who do not have pending CW petitions but have immediate relatives that are U.S. citizens and still do not have any document showing proof of any immigration status in the CNMI.

Rabby Syed, president of the United Workers Movement-NMI, shares the same concern.

He said many of these nonresidents are still in limbo because they have yet to know from USCIS whether their humanitarian parole or one-year parole request will be granted or not.

“I am calling on [Department of Homeland Security] to immediately come up with determination of parole eligibility among mostly immediate relatives of U.S. citizens. These are people who are relying on parole status. Without a DHS decision on their application, they cannot plan, they cannot move on,” Syed told Saipan Tribune.

While those with CW receipt or status have something to show authorities to support their U.S. citizen relatives’ application for food stamp or Medicaid, for example, those who are still waiting for USCIS decision on their parole requests have “nothing” on hand. Many of them could now be considered out of status, pending a decision on their parole requests.

Reyes said he has advised some Mahal members who filed for humanitarian parole before Nov. 28 to re-apply, but this time for the so-called “IR parole” that USCIS announced on Thanksgiving.

The so-called IR parole, once granted, will allow mostly immediate relatives of U.S. citizens and certain “stateless” individuals to lawfully remain in the CNMI until Dec. 31, 2012. The grant of this parole is on a case-by-case basis.

Most of those covered by this 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.

Action on HR 1466 in Congress has been stalled, while the Fitial administration plans to sue DHS for its decision to grant this so-called IR parole.

Reyes said he has also advised those re-applying for parole to mail their application requests to the USCIS Guam office rather than dropping them off at the USCIS office in Garapan “only because by mailing them, they would at least have a receipt that they mailed an application If they drop it at the TSL Plaza in Garapan, they won’t be given any receipt or document proving they submitted an application.”

USCIS earlier said that individuals who already applied for parole in November 2011 need not apply again.

Still, Reyes said that nonresidents are worried that USCIS has yet to make a decision on their parole requests filed before Nov. 28, 2011.

He said he has advised some Mahal members to make sure that they put this on the envelope when they mail their IR parole request: ATTN: IMMEDIATE RELATIVE PAROLE – CNMI.