Economic council supports move to H-visa

Private sector industry leaders and top government officials of the CNMI Strategic Economic Development Council formally adopted a position yesterday to support a CNMI-wide move to H-visa classified workers for ongoing and future economic projects, citing an increased demand in construction workers and the end of the local contract worker program in 2019.

The move to the H-visa class has been seen as the more cost-prohibitive route compared to the contract worker program businesses have taken advantage of in recent years, but the continuing annual cut to the amount of these contract workers allowed in the NMI and the permitting process delays in recent months have made the H-visa option, which the NMI is exempt from cap, the more responsible option.

Council chair Bob Jones, in statement, explained that their adopted position is to “make clear” to members of the private sector that a move to H-visas “is not just good for their business, but is also good for economy as whole in the long term.”

Under the H-visa class, employers would have to pay foreign nationals a prevailing wage.

For construction workers, the prevailing wage is set at $6.43, according to the 2014 CNMI Prevailing Wage and Workforce Assessment Study.

Council members agree that urging businesses, employees, and future investors to pursue the H2-B visa classification “would provide a more stabilized long-term workforce that would help mitigation some of the negative ramifications if Congress does not grant an extension of the CW transition period beyond 2019,” the council said.

The council also wants to discuss a policy of “controlled growth” in the NMI and what that would mean, Saipan Tribune learned.

This would entail “how many tourists needed” and “hotel rooms needed” in the NMI for the projected economic development and what the government can “do to stay within responsible limits,” a senior administration official explained yesterday.

“The shift in focus for the SEDC comes in preparation for the end of the CW transition period…and the rise in economic development throughout the Commonwealth, especially for contract workers,” Jones said. “It remains a much larger task to find the proper category for employees to operate all the new tourist industry facilities that are being development currently.”

“This is a necessary endeavor toward building a workforce that can sustain our economy beyond 2019,” Gov. Ralph DLG Torres said in a statement. “It is the responsible direction for the business community in the CNMI to head toward and I thank the members of the SEDC for taking on this position as leaders of our private sector.”

The council’s position also comes as the Gov. Ralph DLG Torres administration drafts a letter to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to ask that the immigration officials be “more strict” on the CW approvals, Saipan Tribune learned, amid reports that the USCIS has approved permits for contract workers eligible for the H-visa class.

The council’s position also comes three months after the Saipan Chamber of Commerce called for the shift to the H-visa class.

The shift would satisfy the provisions of the Consolidated National Resources Act, which mandated the end to the contract worker program in 2019, and would potentially shepherd hundreds—even thousands—of foreign nationals to immediately qualify for CNMI prevailing wages under the H-visa system and lift them above U.S. poverty levels.