CHCC: 4 of 18 nurses to stay

Fear of violating immigration rules and the lack of specific information on how they could stay without incurring any violations is driving 14 out of 18 nurses to go back to the Philippines despite being eligible for an extension on their CW-1 visas.

After days of waiting, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services finally clarified that a courier receipt showing that USCIS has received the nurses’ employment applications is good enough for them to apply for the 240-day CW-1 visa extensions.

“There is a guideline to be able to avail of the 240-day CW-1 visa extension,” said Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. CEO Esther Muña. “One is that we submitted the employment applications of the nurses for [fiscal year] 2018 [and] we did we have evidence of that. Two, their existing CW-1 visas are expiring in 2017, which we know. Third, that they need to have a receipt. We complied with all the requirements, making the nurses eligible for the 240-day extension.”

“The fact of the matter is, everyone should be able to stay. The problem is that when they go out from the hospital and into the community, they hear otherwise,” added Muña.

Despite CHCC’s efforts to clarify the nurses’ immigration statuses, the problem is the community and the kind of information that gets filtered down to the nurses.

“Rather than supporting them, some friends have convinced them that they could get arrested and that they could be barred from working in the CNMI again despite the fact that the 240-day extension rule is clear. We heard also that somebody from USCIS have told the nurses the same thing,” Muna said.

One of the concerns that the nurses have is the lack of coordination between USCIS and the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines. The U.S. Embassy in the Philippines is not aware of the 240-day extension they give CW-1 workers in the CNMI and staying beyond visa term is a grave violation.

Muña knows the nurses are going through stressful times. “We committed ourselves to this and we know that the governor, [Delegate Gregorio] Kilili [C. Sablan], and the entire CNMI government supports them, especially the community. We also offered our legal counsel to be with them when they face the consul in the U.S. Embassy. It is hard when they get so stressed and their own family gets so stressed and concerned about their situation.”

“Nonetheless we respect their decision and we are not taking this against them,” Muña added.

The four nurses that would stay and work at the emergency room, operating room, neo-natal, and dialysis will help bridge the gap until they get their employment application renewal for October 2017.

“I am very grateful that four of them are willing to stay. I told them that I know this is a difficult decision to them. What I promised to them as a group, we would deliver despite the fact that majority of them have left. So we are going to get them the documents that they asked for,” Muña said.