The Governor of the Northern Marianas wants to see businesses employing more US citizens.
Saipan, CNMI Photo: Supplied
Ralph Torres said CNMI was facing an uncertain future from the beginning of 2020, which was the deadline for the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker non-immigrant visa or CW program.
He said to prepare for this businesses should bring more U.S. citizens into their workforces or use different visa types for their foreign employees.
The islands were already experiencing a worker shortage with the CW program about to expire while demand for workers continued to grow.
The governor said the last three months had been a challenging phase in terms of labour, with some employees under the CW program forced to return to their home countries after the fiscal year 2016 cap was reached.