Northern Mariana Islands Workforce Improvement Act

This Act may be cited as the “Northern Mariana Islands Workforce Improvement Act”.

(a) In general.— Section 6(d)(7) of Public Law 94–241 (48 U.S.C. 1806(d)(7)) is amended to read as follows:

“(7) Permit validity; long-term workers.—

(A) In general.— Except as provided in subparagraph (B), a permit for a Commonwealth Only Worker shall be valid for a period not to exceed 1 year.

(B) Renewals.— A permit issued under subparagraph (A) may be renewed for additional periods of not more than 1 year each, subject to the requirements of this subsection.

(C) Long-term workers.— An alien who was admitted to the Commonwealth as a Commonwealth Only Transitional Worker— may be admitted as a Commonwealth Only Transitional Worker for a period that may not exceed 3 years and may be renewed for additional 3-year periods during the transition period. A permit issued pursuant to this subparagraph shall be counted toward the numerical cap for each fiscal year for which the permit is valid.

(i) during fiscal year 2015; and

(ii) during two of fiscal years 2016, 2017, 2018, or 2019,”.

(b) Effective date.— The amendments made by this section shall take effect as if included in the enactment of Public Law 115–218.