Risk to lose US tourist visa when applying for a CNMI transitional workers visa

Another CNMI visa applicant’s US tourist visa was cancelled for unknown reasons.

Another CNMI visa applicant’s US tourist visa was cancelled for unknown reasons.

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is one of two insular areas that are Commonwealths of the United States; the other is Puerto Rico.

CNMI consists of fifteen islands in the western Pacific Ocean located about three-quarters of the way between Hawaii and the Philippines. The United States Census Bureau reports the total land area of all islands as 183.5 square miles (475.26 km2). As of the 2010 census, the Commonwealth has a population of 53,883, of which over 90% live on the island of Saipan. Of the fourteen other islands, only two – Tinian and Rota – are permanently inhabited.

The Commonwealth’s center of government is in the village of Capital Hill on Saipan. As the island is governed as a single municipality, most publications name Saipan as the Commonwealth’s capital.
Elmer Pineda, 47, couldn’t help but feel disappointed when his valid U.S. tourist visa was cancelled when he applied for a CW visa at the U.S. Embassy in Manila on August 15, even as another CW permit holder’s valid U.S. tourist visa was not cancelled around the same time.

Pineda, a CW-1 permit holder, is so far the second individual whose valid B1/B2 visa was cancelled while applying for a CW visa at the U.S. Embassy in Manila in recent period.

Unlike Pineda, the other one, a 41-year-old CW-2 holder, is still in the Philippines.

“I asked the consul, a male, why he was canceling my tourist visa. It’s still valid and I use it to travel to the states. But the consul said I already have a CW visa and I don’t need the B1/B2 visa. But I told him I cannot use just the CW visa to go to the U.S. mainland, especially with my child’s graduation; I want to be there for my child. I was disappointed and confused but what could I do? Another one I know interviewed on the same day didn’t have his U.S. tourist visa cancelled. It is not fair and it is confusing,” Pineda told Saipan Tribune.

Pineda is a father of three U.S. citizen children and a longtime foreign worker in the CNMI.

“I remember there were statements that the U.S. government will not cancel your valid B1/B2 visa if you apply for a CW visa. I don’t believe there’s a change in that because others’ tourist visas were not cancelled. Why are they applying different rules for people with the same circumstances?” Pineda asked, adding that he is still seeking answers.

Pineda said he decided to come forward when he read the story about the woman whose valid B1/B2 visa was also cancelled.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said yesterday this is a question that needs to be posed to the U.S. State Department. A response from the State Department has yet to be received as of last night.

CW visas may be issued only after CW petitions have been filed with and are approved by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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