DHS to re-publish transitional worker program regs
Monday, 07 December 2009 00:00 By Gemma Q. Casas - Reporter
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THE U.S. Department of Homeland Security plans to re-run sometime next year in the Federal Register the regulations for the transitional worker program to comply with the technical rules of the U.S. Administrative Procedures Act and to meet CNMI employers’ need to keep foreign workers who may not be eligible for currently available U.S.-based employment programs.

The interim final regulations for the transitional worker program that would have created the Commonwealth Worker or CW-1 status for a select group of foreign workers in the CNMI remain suspended and so do the regulations for the E-2 foreign investors.
The suspension came about after U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Federal Judge Paul Friedman ruled in favor of the CNMI’s motion for an emergency injunctive relief against the questioned regulations on grounds that they failed to comply with the U.S. APA that mandates a sufficient public comments period before they are adopted.
The regulations would have taken effect on Nov. 28, 2009, the date when the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act was applied to the CNMI.
David Gulick, regional area director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said their department plans to republish in the Federal Register the regulations.
“Sometime in next year, we really can’t say when but hopefully before Nov. 2011,” he said.
He said the program should meet the need of hotels and other local employers to employ housekeepers or cleaners and other categories of foreign workers who may not meet the professional qualifications set-forth in other U.S.-based employment programs such as the H-visas or L-visas.
The transition phase to transfer foreign workers to any U.S.-based employment programs where they may be deemed eligible begins on Nov. 28 and will end on Dec. 31, 2014.
Majority of foreign workers in the CNMI have locally issued labor permits valid through Nov. 27, 2011 only.