Visa waivers for Russian, Chinese tourists pushed

Lawmakers are lobbying the U.S. government to ensure Chinese and Russian nationals—which comprise a key segment of the local tourism industry—will get visa waivers under the new immigration regulations.

Rep. Diego T. Benavente, chairman of the House Committee on Federal and Foreign Relations, yesterday pre-filed a resolution calling on President Bush and several U.S. federal departments to include China and Russia in the Guam and Northern Marianas visa waiver program. Ten other House members signed on as co-sponsors of the resolution.

Benavente said that Guam Gov. Felix Camacho, as well as key tourism officials from Guam and CNMI, will present the resolution to federal officials when they travel to Washington, D.C. next week.

“It would have been nice if we had actually adopted the resolution, but we didn’t get a chance to do it. At least, we have majority of the House members signing in support of the resolution,” he said.

The resolution echoes a July 2008 report by the Marianas Integrated Immigration Task Force, a group of CNMI and Guam officials organized shortly after passage of the CNMI immigration federalization law in May 2008.

The resolution outlined the economic benefits gained by the Northern Marianas from hosting Russia and Chinese tourists over the past 10 years. It also said the Commonwealth has over this period developed an effective system for monitoring the arrival and departure of these tourists.

Over the past decade, the resolution said, approximately 400,000 Russian and Chinese tourists have entered the Commonwealth. During that period, there have been approximately one dozen incidents of Chinese tourists overstaying and zero incidents of Russian tourists overstaying.

In 2007, Russian and Chinese tourists accounted for over one-tenth of total visitor arrivals and nearly a fifth of visitor expenditures in the Commonwealth, the resolution added.

Under current local rules, tourists from Russia and China have access to the CNMI without a visa. However, new immigration rules could impose mainland U.S. visa restrictions on these travelers, a prospect that threatens to stunt the growth of these emerging tourism markets.

Yet the joint visa waiver program, which allow nationals of designated countries to enter Guam and the Northern Marianas without a U.S. visa, could provide a solution to these concerns. The Department of Homeland Security is poised to publish a list of the countries approved for the waivers by Nov. 4, 2008.