Chinese workers face difficulty getting CW visa interview dates

If one thinks that applying for a Commonwealth-only worker visa at a U.S. Embassy in the Philippines is tough, think again. Chinese workers in the CNMI are facing a tougher battle as U.S. embassies in China either do not know yet what a CW visa is or the CW visa processing service is not offered just yet, unlike in the Philippines.

Joyce Su, 42, said it’s been over a month since she first inquired and applied for a CW visa in mid-February because of a planned vacation in her hometown of China but several costly and time-consuming phone calls later, she has yet to get an appointment for a CW visa interview at the U.S. Embassy in China.

“First they didn’t know what CW visa is. I called several times. Every phone call I have to buy special card, which is $5.50 to $8 for every 12 minutes. I already called many times,” said Su, who has been a legal foreign worker in the CNMI for 23 years.

Su, who works at a small business in Garapan, said she would have to cancel her vacation plans if the U.S. Embassy in China still cannot set an appointment for an interview before her supposed departure date of April 30.

She also worries that once she gets a CW visa interview appointment, she won’t be able to get her CW visa before her scheduled return to Saipan on May 24.

A foreign worker from the Philippines earlier said he got his CW visa three weeks after his interview at the U.S. Embassy in Manila. But the application process took a month, including the date when he started setting an interview date.

In contrast, applying for a routine tourist visa, called B1-B2, usually takes less than a week.

Anning Huang, a marketing manager at Hyatt Regency Saipan in Garapan, is also finding it difficult to get a CW visa interview appointment.

Huang said he has already placed at least three calls to the U.S. visa processing center in China to make an interview appointment for a CW visa application, to no avail.

“I have been calling and every time I call, they tell me to call again because they do not have available interview dates yet,” he said in a phone interview yesterday.

Huang, who came to Saipan in 1982 and started working for the Hyatt Regency since 1985, said he is now worried that he might not be able to go on vacation because of the delays in getting a CW visa application interview date.

He said he’s only allowed a two-week vacation.

Huang also said he has been paying federal taxes for 30 years and is now concerned that he might not be able to get his retirement benefits because of uncertainties in his immigration status.

The CW visa category was created pursuant to U.S. Public Law 110-229 signed in May 2008, which placed CNMI immigration under federal control effective Nov. 28, 2009. The regulations were published only in September 2011 for a number of reasons.

Foreign workers in the CNMI who wish to re-enter the Commonwealth after a vacation in a non-U.S. area such as China or the Philippines need to secure a CW visa at a U.S. embassy.

A CW visa is solely for people who have been approved a CW status and will be valid until Dec. 31, 2014, when the transition to federal immigration system period ends.

But each CW-1 visa has to be renewed every year and only until 2014, unless the transition period is extended.

The transitional visa is “valid only for entrance into the CNMI.”

Visa holders cannot use CW visas to travel to or work anywhere else in the United States.

The U.S. Embassy in Manila is so far the only one among Asian countries that is now providing application services online/phone in for CW-1 and CW-2 visa applications for a fee of $150 each, and so far the only one that has posted such services on their websites.