No ‘green card’ for long-term OFWs in CNMI

GARAPAN, Saipan – No “green card" or US permanent residency status will be granted to overseas Filipino workers and other foreign laborers by virtue of their years of legal employment in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) when the transition to federal immigration begins on June 1, 2009. This is according to Michael Aytes, acting deputy director of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, who is currently in the CNMI capital of Saipan. “Temporary workers will not get permanent residence simply because they worked here for a period of years," he told GMANews.TV. Many OFWs who have been in this US territory for five to 20 or more years have been hoping that federalization will allow them to get a green card or be granted US citizenship. A green card, or a US permanent resident card, is an identification card attesting to the permanent resident status of an alien in the United States of America. Green card holders are allowed to live and work in the US. But Ronnie Doca, board chairman of the United Workers Movement NMI, said nothing is final until the worker regulations of the federalization law come out. Doca, who is also the president of the Pilipino Contract Workers Association (Pilcowa), said workers are still hoping they will be granted a better immigration status once the transition period begins. He said this is especially true among those who have US citizen children and who may be asked to leave the CNMI if they don’t have a legal employment in the CNMI once the transition begins. “Hindi naman nila pwedeng iwanan yung mga anak nila dito. Sana mabigyan sila ng humanitarian consideration (They can’t leave behind their children here if they’d be sent home. I hope they’d be given humanitarian consideration)," he said. Other OFWS also believe that an “organic" type of federalization is possible similar to what happened on Guam where foreign workers were given US citizenship decades ago. But US immigration officials said there will be no automatic granting of US citizenship among the guest worker population. No US visa, no entry into CNMI Aytes confirmed on Tuesday that foreign workers who exit the CNMI before the start of or during the transition to federal immigration would need a US visa to be able to return for work purposes. Currently, OFWs and other foreign workers only have CNMI work/entry permits that will not be honored by the US Immigration when the takeover begins. But the CNMI government and employers said the federal regulations for employment have yet to be released, making it hard to prepare for the impact of federalization. Holders of US tourist visas can still enter the CNMI after the transition period but they cannot work using their CNMI work permit. “A person needs a visa to come to the CNMI after the transition date, even if they have status here. Even if we give them a status, after the transition date and they travel, they are going to need the appropriate visa to come back," Aytes said. The CNMI at the moment is the only US territory that does not require a U.S. visa. US immigration center opens Aytes and other ranking officials of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services opened on Tuesday the agency’s first Application Support Center in the CNMI, over three decades after the islands became a US territory. The center provides traditional immigration service of fingerprinting and biometric services, as well as offers information appointments for general immigration inquiries using InfoPass, a multilingual Web-based system that is free on www.uscis.gov. This is in preparation for the federal takeover of CNMI immigration scheduled to begin on June 1 as a result of US Public Law 110-229, although CNMI officials are asking the US government to delay the implementation by 180 days. “It's our privilege to be here to be able to serve you in this critical period," Aytes said during the center’s grand opening ceremonies on Saipan, which is only about three hours away from Manila by direct flight. The CNMI is home to some 10,000 OFWs and Filipino-Americans. - GMANews.TV