Four major points that will kill CNMI economy

-Cutting off China and Russia, even for a couple of years

-Investors standards set at US level

-Schools certified by US for acceptance of student visa

-The guest working program transition

We need to continue with a program similar to what we are doing with the Chinese and Russian tourists. Feds could provide a group of INS agents to be part of our program at immigration. Keep them on Saipan. Cutting off the market for a year or two would kill the businesses whose main clients are Russians or Chinese and many others benefiting from the spending. Starting marketing again after a couple of years will take more dollars and will be competing with other destinations. Money spent by investors for years to build the market and business will be lost. It makes no sense. Where is the U.S. concern for the welfare of its citizens?

Have the transition from CNMI system to U.S. in a day or two. Maintain present system until a reasonable transition can take place.
The investor visas need to be within the level of present CNMI standards. They need to be able to travel between Saipan and their country at will. Many invest so the can come and spend money in the islands, not necessarily to live. If the threshold is that of U.S. standards, investors will bypass the CNMI for the states. We can’t compete with U.S. mainland. We will not get investors from the U.S. Our market and economy is Asia.

Schools accepting foreign students need to be certified from Saipan, not the states. We can’t compete with the U.S. for anything. The qualifying schools need standards acceptable here and not compared with the U.S. mainland. If we compete with U.S. we lose. If students have to have embassy interviews, eligible students will be reduced.

The labor force loss carries broad consequences. The loss of workers will not only hurt businesses but have economic negative effects. Losing 18,000 workers and families in the next three years will drop our population below 40,000, which means higher prices, fewer dollars to multiply, more vacancies and business closed. There needs to be a means to qualify workers with U.S. children and long-term in the CNMI and give them resident status. It would stabilize our workforce, limit abuses and help in transition from contract workers.