Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands CW Transitional Worker Visa Regulations

Businesses, non-residents, and U.S. workers are still in the dark as to when the CNMI-only CW Transitional Visa Regulations will be released. Apparently there was a statement issued today from David Gillick, the DHS regional head who stated that they will try to have the regulations issued by November 2011, when all CNMI non-residents will be required to have U.S. issued visas.

I really cannot understand the logic behind the wait. The U.S. government was required to have regulations in place last year, and at the very last minute, submitted a draft of regulations that were not thought out well and did nothing to protect non-residents, and U.S. residents from abuse and exploitation.

As a bit of a background the CNMI department of labor had previously been in charge of immigration on the islands of the CNMI until November 29, 2009. As a condition of employment of non-residents, the employer had to provide medical coverage, pay all processing fees, health screens, and even purchase a bond to cover 3 months of wages and repatriation expenses. Families were only allowed on the island if the employee was making over 20K per year and the children had to enroll in private school. The system had its good as well as bad.

All U.S. federal visas currently include the ability to bring families and children will be allowed to attend public school. Medical insurance will be at the option of the employee and I forsee huge problems at the government run hospital and school system if federal visas are allowed. The government is having difficulty providing services for half of the population, and it would be considerably more difficult to provide for all of the islands residents.

Hopefully the USCIS will be taking these issues and more into account, and the CW Transitional worker regulations will be issued soon. Hopefully there will be some protections for U.S. residents, or abuses will likely continue. Non-residents as young as 16 years old from China and the Philippines could be brought into the CNMI to work for as little as $2.13/hr. with no insurance and numerous deductions unless protections are put in place.