Travel restrictions, application questions as USCIS wraps up outreach

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will wrap up its outreach program on the transitional worker rule today by having an informational table at the Garapan Street Market from 5pm to 8pm, even as employers and employees continue to ask questions about the Commonwealth-only worker status application, travel restrictions, and related issues.

At a public session yesterday morning at the American Memorial Park indoor auditorium, USCIS district director David Gulick answered more questions from the audience that included the CW application process.

One of the audience members asked whether only the owner of the business can file a CW petition. Gulick said anyone authorized by the company to file the petition can do so.

Gulick said it doesn’t matter whether the owner is outside of the CNMI as long as the business or company is in the CNMI.

The USCIS official also answered several questions about employers’ filing for multiple workers on one Form I-129CW.

In general, an employer can file for multiple workers on one I-129CW if the workers have the same job, the same location and the same duration of employment.

Ernie Lacorte, chief financial officer at Seventh-Day Adventist Clinic, said he attended three of USCIS’ outreach sessions, wherein most of his questions were answered.

“I’m glad I attended more than one sessions because everyday, a situation arises that need new answers. These sessions have been very helpful and informative. I just wish those people who were not able to attend would ask questions to persons who are experts, and not just anyone they know,” said Lacorte.

Travel restrictions

USCIS regional media manager Marie Therese Sebrechts clarified that CW-1 and CW-2 classifications are a special classification restricted to the CNMI and were never designated to allow for travel to another part of the United States.

The Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008, the law that placed CNMI immigration under federal control, specifically states that the status is only valid in the CNMI.

If the travel to Guam or the United States is for a CW-1 or CW-2 beneficiaries’ vacation, USCIS is still working with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to determine whether or not travel will be possible on a tourist visa (B1/B2).

However, she reiterated that if a CW-1 returns to the CNMI, he/she must enter on a CW-1 visa in order to maintain their ability to work.

“So, if they traveled somewhere else in the United States on a B visa, they would have to return to the CNMI directly from a foreign location,” she added.

Sebrechts said those with a pending CW petition “would need advance parole in order to return or approval of CW-1 and the corresponding CW Visa in order to return” to the CNMI.

She said a proof of a CW petition or filing is not enough to return to the CNMI.

“They would need advance parole or, if the CW-1 was approved, the corresponding CW visa,” she said.