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2,038 foreign workers now with CW status
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Posted on May 04 2012
By Haidee V. Eugenio
Reporter
Reporter
Between Oct. 7 and May 1, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved 1,309 I-129CW or Commonwealth-only worker petitions consisting of 2,038 beneficiaries.
The 2,038 workers now with CW status is 17 percent of the 11,703 beneficiaries sponsored on I-129CW petitions filed within a seven-month period.
Marie Thérèse Sebrechts, USCIS regional media manager, said yesterday that through Tuesday, May 1, the agency had data entered 5,665 I-129CW petitions. The petitions were filed by approximately 1,779 different employers.
Sebrechts said a total of 11,703 CW1 workers are sponsored on these petitions.
“A total of 1,309 petitions were approved consisting of 2,038 beneficiaries,” she said.
Sebrechts also said a total of 26 petitions were denied, consisting of 29 beneficiaries.
The 26 denials include 14 withdrawals of petitions by the employers and 12 denials for cause.
“The denials ‘for cause’ were due to the absence of documentation to support a finding that: (a) the petitioner (employer) meets one or more of the eligibility requirements as listed in the regulations or (b) the beneficiary (worker) meets the requirements as an ‘eligible alien,’ specifically that the beneficiary is lawfully present in the CNMI,” Sebrechts said.
For weeks and months, CNMI employers and foreign workers have been asking why it has taken this long to process CW petitions. USCIS said the processing is expected to speed up in the coming weeks.
USCIS had a self-imposed deadline of Jan. 31, 2012, to adjudicate CW petitions, but this turned out to be an ambitious deadline.
