‘HR 83 may be considered soon’

All is not lost for CNMI investors holding E-2C visas as H.R. 83 may still be calendared for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives before the lower chamber adjourns at the end of the year.

According to gov.track.us, a website that allows you to track bills in the U.S. Congress, H.R. 83, which includes three CNMI provisions that deal with immigration, could be placed on calendar in the coming days.

“The House Majority Leader indicated on Dec. 9, 2014, that this bill may be considered in the week ahead,” read the information from the website.

The House Majority Leader is Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).

Aside from the provision extending the E-2C program in the Commonwealth for another five years, H.R. 83 would also extend policies that would also otherwise expire on Dec. 31, 2014.

These are a bar on applications for asylum in the Northern Mariana Islands and the exemption for Guam and the Northern Marianas from the national numerical cap on H visas.

E-2C visa holders are investors that have been grandfathered from the Commonwealth’s immigration laws.

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) said he continues to work overtime to have H.R. 83 passed before the lame duck 113th U.S. Congress concludes.

“We continue to work on passage of H.R. 83 and very much appreciate the partnership of Gov. [Eloy S.] Inos in working toward this goal,” he said in an email to Saipan Tribune.

Sablan is the co-sponsor of the bill that was authored by U.S. Virgin Islands Delegate Donna Christensen (D). It was introduced on Jan. 3, 2013, passed the House on Sept. 15, 2014, before being passed by the Senate to include CNMI provisions on Sept. 18, 2014.

Inos wrote New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie last Dec. 2 to ask for the Republican Governors Association chairman’s help in urging U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) to put H.R. 83 in calendar before the end of the year.

The governor told Christie that H.R. 83 is time-critical as well as non-controversial since they’re already been in place for five years, “so there would be no change in existing policy,” adding that one of the policies applies both to Guam and the CNMI (H visa cap), while the other two apply solely to the Commonwealth.

Earlier in the month, the CNMI House of Representatives passed a resolution urging Congress to grant a five-year extension to the CNMI-only investor visa. HR 18-66 said the E-2C investors are one of the linchpins of the island economy, especially at a time when the tourism industry is about to rebound.

A total of 261 E-2C investors remain in the Commonwealth.