lawandborder.com

A new visa waiver program has been implemented for Guam and the Commonwealth of Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI). U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regulations for the program were published January 16, 2009. The program begins June 1, 2009. Chinese passport holders are not eligible for visa waivers, meaning that visas continue to be necessary for Chinese to travel to Guam and CNMI.

The Territory of Guam is an island in the western Pacific and is an organized, unincorporated insular area of the U.S. And CNMI is a commonwealth in political union with the United States. The immigration laws of the U.S. apply in both Guam and CNMI.

The new program allows nonimmigrant visitors who are citizens of certain countries to seek admission for business or pleasure and solely for entry into and stay on Guam or CNMI without a visa for a period of authorized stay of no longer than 45 days.

By law, in determining which countries can participate in the visa waiver program, the DHS Secretary is required to consider numerous factors, including whether the country provides a “significant economic benefit” to CNMI; immigration law compliance by the country’s nationals (rates of nonimmigrant visa refusals and overstays); the country’s cooperation in immigration law enforcement (electronic travel authorizations, procedures for reporting lost and stolen passports, repatriation of aliens); and whether the country poses a threat to U.S. welfare, safety, or security.

The countries approved for the program are: Australia, Brunei, Hong Kong (Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) passport and Hong Kong identification card is required), Japan, Malaysia, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom.

The DHS Secretary determined that visitors from China do provide a significant economic benefit to CNMI, with 5,019 visitors arriving to CNMI (10% of all visitors) spending $38 million per year ($967 per visitor). These figures count only CNMI, not Guam. However, the Secretary decided to exclude China from the visa waiver program:

At this time, however, due to political, security, and law enforcement concerns, including high nonimmigrant visa refusal rates and concerns with cooperation regarding the repatriation of citizens, subjects, nationals and residents of the country subject to a final order of removal, nationals of the PRC and Russia are not eligible to participate in the Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Program when the program is implemented.

After additional layered security measures, which may include, but are not limited to, electronic travel authorization to screen and approve potential visitors prior to arrival in Guam and the CNMI, and other border security infrastructure, DHS will make a determination as to whether nationals of the PRC and Russia can participate in the Guam-CNMI Visa Waiver Program.

It seems to me that for China to be considered a “normal” country eligible to participate in U.S. immigration programs like this and the H-2B temporary worker program, key goals will be that China must provide further cooperation in accepting repatriation of its citizens ordered deported from the U.S., and the rate of nonimmigrant visa refusals will need to continue to drop. As of FY 2008, the adjusted B (visitor) visa refusal rate for Chinese was 18.2%.

Guam’s tourist industry had been optimistic that China would be allowed to participate in the visa waiver program. And Guam’s governor, Felix Camacho, remains cautiously optimistic that China can participate in the future.

Previously, Chinese were not included in Guam’s visa waiver program but were allowed into CNMI under the visitor entry permit program that existed before U.S. immigration laws became applicable under a 2008 law.