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Bill seeks to allow NMI agencies to release alien workers’ original docs
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Posted on Sep 30 2011
By Haidee V. Eugenio
Reporter
Reporter
Reps. Ray Yumul (R-Saipan) and Janet Maratita (Ind-Saipan) pre-filed yesterday a bill authorizing the CNMI Department of Labor and the Division of Immigration to release original documents that foreign workers submitted in support of their application for labor and entry permits.
House Bill 17-230 requires a $15 fee for each original document that Labor or Immigration releases.
These original documents include, but are not limited to, birth certificate, marriage certificate, diploma, and official school transcript.
Yumul, in an interview, spoke of the timeliness of the bill because starting on Oct. 7, the U.S. Citizenship an Immigration Services will begin accepting petitions from employers for a Commonwealth-only worker, or CW, classification for their employees.
“As part of the CW application, employers need to submit some original documents that employees submitted to CNMI Labor. So instead of going back to their country of origin to get the original documents, they can just request for the original copy from Labor and Immigration,” Yumul told Saipan Tribune.
The lawmaker said that Labor and Immigration can keep a copy of the original documents for their file.
“The Legislature finds that these original documents will better aid the transitional workers within the CNMI to take custody of the original birth certificates, marriage certificates and other pertinent documents that may be needed in allowing their respective employers to expedite the submission of the application for CW and other petitions instead of waiting for originals to arrive from the [foreign worker’s] home country,” the bill says.
