USCIS Issues Guidance On Transitional Worker Program For Northern Mariana Island
The United States Citizenship and Immigration services (USCIS) published an interim final rule in the Federal Register in early November, to create a new category of visa classification called the ‘Transitional Worker’. According to Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 (CNRA) a transitional worker is an alien worker who is currently ineligible for another classification under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) and who performs services or labor for an employer in CNMI.
The CNMI-Only Transitional Worker Program is part of several steps taken to implement the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 (CNRA), expanding U.S. immigration law in the CNMI. This non-immigrant visa category has two admission codes CW-1 and CW-2 for the principal transitional worker and the dependents respectively. Nonresidents lawfully present in the CNMI and those abroad will be eligible for the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker Program.
Nonresidents lawfully present in the CNMI must be petitioned for by their employer and for them to be eligible for the transitional worker visa. (The employer should be engaged in legal business under federal or CNMI law.) This petition must be filed using Form I-129CW, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker in CNMI with the required fee of $320. Under certain circumstances wherein the employer is unable to pay the fee, it may be waived. However, the employer must prove he can pay the employee his wage.
Once a worker acquires the Transitional Worker visa, he can travel to and from CNMI, provided he has the visa required for readmission. The transitional period begins on November 28th 2009 and will be on till December 31st 2014. After this period, the transitional worker visa will no longer be valid. After this, such workers must change to another status under the Immigration and Nationality Act.
This interim final rule introducing the Transitional Worker Program will assist the orderly changeover of workers’ status, from the permit system to the Immigration Law.