Faster immigration process for foreign workers—Grey

Securing a work visa to reenter the CNMI among foreign workers may not be as hard as previously thought once federalization sets in.

Immigration director Melvin Grey yesterday told members and guests of the Rotary Club of Saipan that foreign workers granted a change in work status—from a CNMI permit to an H classification—will still need a work visa issued by a U.S. embassy in their home country before they could re-enter the CNMI after federalization sets in.

But Grey said this expedites the process of securing work visa for foreign workers to be able to re-enter the CNMI after a vacation.

“When a person walks in with the [document stating] that they been granted H status in the CNMI, they show it to the embassy folks and….it will expedite the process [of issuing work visas] instead of waiting for months for it to happen. That will allow him to come back in,” Grey said, adding that this is a positive change from what was previously known.

Grey said the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services shared this information during a recent meeting hosted by the Tinian Chamber of Commerce.

“USCIS told us that normally it takes about 60 days for them to process an application. It goes to the national visa center which then sends it to the embassy and it will take the embassy probably four to six months, under normal circumstances, for them to issue a visa. What they’re trying to do is expedite that,” he told reporters.

He said there is no guarantee that a U.S. work visa will be granted to those with approved H classification in the CNMI.

Grey said it is business as usual at the CNMI Division of Immigration, at least until Nov. 28, the start of transition to federal immigration.

He told Rotary Club that his request to the federal government to waive the age and test requirements for CNMI immigration personnel to be employed under the federal system has not been responded to.

Grey reiterated that a green card will not be granted to foreign workers based on the length of their stay here, but the federal government is still not sure what to do with permanent residents in the CNMI whose status were granted in the late ’70s or early ’80s.

But the federal government, he said, is “beginning to understand us a little bit more,” citing the delay in federalization from June 1 to Nov. 28.