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New USCIS regulations delayed
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Posted on Feb 04 2019
CNMI employers and workers remain in the dark on the new guidelines that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services would be implementing based on the Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act of 2018.
USCIS has yet to issue the guidelines, which Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) said should have been released last month. “Neither USCIS nor the [U.S.] Department of Labor has issued the regulations for [the NMI] U.S. Workforce Act.”
“The Act called for regulations to be issued within 180 days. In other words, by Jan. 20. So, they [USCIS] are late,” added Sablan.
President Donald Trump signed the then-H.R. 5956 into law on July 24 last year.
Saipan Tribune asked USCIS last week for an update on the needed regulations but it has yet to respond as of press time.
Saipan Tribune also reached out to the Torres administration if they’ve heard anything from the White House, but they too have yet to respond to inquiries.
In a previous email to Saipan Tribune, USCIS public affairs officer Claire K. Nicholson said they would release the interim rules as soon as possible, but did not provided a specific date when that would be.
She added that the government shutdown did not hamper their operations. “The partial shutdown of the federal government has not adversely affected USCIS operations with respect to the CNMI, except for a temporary suspension of the E-Verify program.”
Sablan said he had already asked USCIS for the reason behind the delay. “Unfortunately, there is no penalty if USCIS or Labor does not issue the regulations in the required time. I have asked that, in light of the delay in issuing the regulation.”
He added that the old regulations remain in place. “The agency [USCIS] issued formal guidance to potential applicants. Until new regulations are published, however, the current procedures for submitting CW1 applications continue in effect.”
Saipan Tribune asked Sablan for an update on the number of CW1 petitions that have been denied after receiving reports that a lot of CW-1 workers with work permits had their visa application denied at the U.S. Embassy in Manila.
Sablan said they had yet to receive data on the number of CW-1 petitions that have been denied, but USCIS had already approved 8,036 permits for fiscal year 2019 as of Dec. 18; there are still 4,646 pending.
Issues on immigration and labor have hounded the CNMI the past few months after the Trump administration rescinded the CNMI parole program in December and last January removed the Philippines from the H-2B visa worker program used to hire construction laborers, a worker category barred from the Northern Mariana Islands Expansion Act.
