Pacific

Parole now available for some foreign workers in CNMI

16:29 pm on 12 December 2011

Foreign workers in the Northern Marianas, who are covered by a bill seeking CNMI-only status for four specific groups of people can now start applying for parole.

If granted this would allow them to lawfully live in the CNMI until the end of next year.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Friday released the application guidelines for this type of parole.

The granting of parole is at the Services' discretion, and is on a case-by-case basis.

The legislation, which is being promoted by the CNMI's delegate to the US Congress, Gregorio Kilili Sablan, has yet to pass.

It would apply to four groups of people - the immediate relatives of some U.S. citizens in the islands; CNMI permanent residents; those born in the CNMI between January the 1st 1974 and January the 9th 1978; and the spouses, parents, or children of U.S. citizens.