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‘240-day grace period part of larger, complicated proposal’
The proposal to have Commonwealth-only workers, or CW1 workers, be allowed to continue working for up to 240 days or eight months while their CW permit renewal applications are being processed is part of a larger and more complicated suite of proposals that involves multiple visa categories.
This, according to Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan, who added that there is still no new development from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service regarding the grace period proposal for CW1 workers in the Commonwealth.
“There is no specific timeline for approval, rejection, or amendment of the proposed rule for a 240-day grace period. We check with USCIS regularly, so the agency is reminded that this grace period remains an important concern for the Northern Marianas,” he said.
In fact, his office requested USCIS for a status report just this week. He, however, said that the agency could spend as much time as it needs to, before taking any action on the proposal.
“It is important to remember that the 240-day grace period is a small part of a much larger and more complicated proposal regarding multiple visa categories and applying nationwide.”
Sablan said in addition to the 240-day grace period, other proposals include the following:
• Designate the other high-skilled specialty occupation professionals from Chile and Singapore (H-1B1) and Australia (E-3) as authorized to work for the petitioning employer without separate application for work authorization;
• Extend work authorization for an H1-B1 and E-3 with a timely filed renewal petition;
• Amend regulations describing filing procedures for extensions and change of status requests to include the H-1B1 and principal E-3; and
• Expand the current list of evidentiary criteria that can be submitted for EB-1 outstanding professors and researcher petitions.
The Saipan Chamber of Commerce, the island’s largest business organization, as well as the Hotel Association of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Society for Human Resource Management CNMI Chapter are all in support of the 240-day grace period proposal and hope that USCIS approves it sooner than later.
