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LTR applicants get automatic parole extension
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Posted on Jun 18 2021
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will automatically extend parole and employment authorization, if applicable, for parolees who timely applied for CNMI long-term resident status. USCIS will extend the parole through the end of 2021 or until their LTR applications are adjudicated, whichever comes first.
In a news release yesterday to announce the extension, USCIS said this specific extension of parole applies only to current parolees who timely filed Form I-955, Application for CNMI Long-Term Resident Status, and Form I-765, Application for Employment Authorization, and whose applications remain pending on June 30, 2021.
USCIS will automatically extend their parole (and employment authorization, if applicable) without interruption through Dec. 30, 2021, or the date that USCIS makes a final decision on their Form I955 and Form I-765, whichever is earlier.
Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP)’s legislation, creating a permanent status in the Northern Marianas for certain stateless people in the Marianas, for persons granted permanent resident status under Commonwealth immigration law, immediate relatives of U.S. citizens, and in-home caregivers, was signed into law in June 2019.
Applications for the new status were due by August 2020. Largely because of the coronavirus pandemic, however, which caused closure of the USCIS Application Service Center in the Marianas, the agency has been slow to process the applications received.
In the meantime, USCIS placed applicants in parole status and provided them with work authorizations, both of which would have expired on June 30, if not for today’s announcement. This is the fourth time USCIS has extended the paroles and work authorizations.
When Sablan met with Alejandro Mayorkas, the Biden administration’s new Secretary of Homeland Security, in February, there were 2,861 applications pending. Sablan asked for a quick reopening of the Application Service Center to begin clearing the backlog. The ASC is now staffed and reopened.
More information about the automatic extension of parole and work authorization is available on the USCIS website: https://www.uscis.gov/news/alerts/uscis-extends-transitional-parole-for-cnmi-long-term-resident-status-applicants-1. (PR)
