DOL Announces Interim Final Rule for CW-1 Workers
March 25, 2019. Department of Labor Announces the Interim Final Rule for Temporary Employment in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CW-1 Workers) WASHINGTON, DC - The Department of Labor (the Department or DOL) is posting an Interim Final Rule (IFR) as required by the Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act of 2018 (Workforce Act), Pub. L. 115-218 (July 24, 2018). DOL is posting a copy of the IFR in advance of its publication in the Federal Register. A copy of the IFR can be found at https://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/pdf/CNMI_IFR.pdf.
The IFR establishes the process by which an employer in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) will obtain a prevailing wage and temporary labor certification (TLC) from the Department for use in petitioning the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to employ a nonimmigrant worker in CW-1 visa status. As required by the Workforce Act, a TLC granted by the Department serves as confirmation to DHS that an insufficient number of qualified U.S. workers are available to fill the employer's job opportunity in the CNMI, and the employment of a CW-1 worker will not adversely affect the wages or working conditions of similarly employed U.S. workers.
The Department's actions will help employers, through more robust domestic recruitment, find U.S. workers for positions the employers would otherwise seek to fill with CW-1 workers. The rule also establishes important protections for both CW-1 workers and U.S. workers in corresponding employment and ensures that no U.S. worker is placed at a competitive disadvantage compared to a CW-1 worker or is displaced by a CW-1 worker. Several provisions will improve transparency between employers and workers, such as requiring employers to provide workers with detailed earnings statements on or before each payday, disclose all deductions from pay, and a copy of the work contract in a language understood by the workers. To protect the program from fraud and abuse, the Department has authority to impose sanctions on employers who violate program requirements, such as more intensive or assisted recruitment requirements, revocation of a granted TLC, and debarment from all employment-based immigration programs administered by the Department for up to five years.
The IFR will be effective on and after April 4, 2019, at 12:00 a.m. Eastern Time. The IFR will provide the public with a comment period, lasting 60 days from the date the IFR is published in the Federal Register, during which interested parties will be able to submit public comments on the rule. No CW-1 applications will be accepted until the IFR goes into effect on April 4, 2019.
CW-1 employers will use the Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG), which can be accessed at the following website: https://flag.dol.gov. The Department will provide user guides and conduct informational webinars on the new system for the public beginning this week.
In the coming weeks, the Department will conduct outreach and provide materials on the new regulatory requirements for stakeholders interested in the CW-1 program, and further details on those outreach events and materials will be announced on the OFLC website at www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov. In the meantime, interested stakeholders may obtain a detailed factsheet on the new regulations, https://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/pdf/CNMI_IFR_Factsheet.pdf, as well as a copy of the IFR that will be published in the Federal Register, https://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/pdf/CW_IFR.pdf, at the enclosed links.
Note: These versions of the regulations may vary slightly from the published document if minor technical or formatting changes are made during the review by the Office of the Federal Register. Only the version published in the Federal Register is the official regulation.