Employers must still advertise job vacancies

The Commonwealth-only worker rule does not have a 20 percent or 30 percent local hiring requirement as a condition for processing CW applications, but employers wanting to hire foreign workers still need to consider advertising job vacancies to support their attestation that no other qualified U.S. workers were available for the same jobs.

Posting job vacancies was among the issues that employers wanted clarified during outreach sessions on the CW rule.

“We don’t have that requirement as a condition of our process,” said Philip Busch from the USCIS Office of Chief Counsel, when asked about a 30 percent local hiring requirement at an outreach session for Saipan Chamber of Commerce members.

David Gulick, USCIS district director, reiterated that employers petitioning for CW status need to consider job solicitation so they can truthfully attest that they tried to hire qualified U.S. workers for jobs but nobody was available.

Job postings may be online, newspapers, television, and other medium.

While the issue of the need for JVAs was clarified, Carlito Marquez, special projects manager at Pacific Marine and Industrial Corp., said that employers also want guidance as to how long these job advertisements should be posted.

“Should it be one week, two weeks or one month? Employers do not want USCIS to reject the CW application just because they advertised for a short period of time, but USCIS is not setting a length of time for advertising jobs to encourage U.S. workers to apply,” Marquez told Saipan Tribune.

There is no specific length of time required to post these job vacancies, but employers need to attest that they were able to consider available U.S. workers for the position.

USCIS regional media manager Marie Therese Sebrechts separately said that “U.S. workers” include U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents or green card holders, and Freely Associated States citizens.

The CNMI Department of Labor, meanwhile, has been encouraging U.S. citizens, green card holders, and FAS citizens to apply for jobs currently held by foreign workers.

“Jobs currently held by foreign workers will require a new federal permit (by Nov. 28, 2011). The new federal transitional worker program will require employers to hire available qualified U.S. citizens or green card holders before hiring or re-hiring aliens as transitional workers,” Labor said in a public notice.

It said “a federal permit to employ an alien can be obtained only if an employer makes reasonable efforts to find qualified U.S. citizens for these jobs and no qualified citizens are available.”

All jobs now held by aliens are listed in the CNMI Department of Labor’s website, under Job Availability Survey, at www.marianaslabor.net.

“If you have problems, the CNMI Department of Labor will help. If you know of a job held by an alien for which you believe you are qualified, you can apply directly to the employer,” CNMI Labor said.

During the outreach sessions that started on Sept. 20, USCIS has been providing guidance to employers whether they have to apply for a CW or an H1B visa for their employees.

“Employers should ‘reasonably believe’ employee is not eligible for another employment-based nonimmigrant visa classification before submitting CW petition. A good question to ask is, ‘Is the work temporary or seasonal in nature?’” USCIS said.

It said if the answer is “no,” the employer may submit a statement that the work is not temporary/seasonal and they believe the worker is not eligible for another kind of nonimmigrant visa classification.

Only employers engaged in “legitimate” business are eligible to file for CW application.

Employers can start submitting CW petitions on Oct. 7.

USCIS encourages people to visit the following websites for more information about the CW rule: www.uscis.gov/cnmi, www.uscis.gov/cw, and www.youtube.com/user/uscis. To speak to someone in person, visit www.uscis.gov and make an InfoPass appointment.

USCIS will continue to have outreach sessions until Sept. 29.

From 10am to 12pm today, USCIS will have a public session at the Pedro P. Tenorio Multi-Purpose Center in Susupe.