Most CW-1 Employers Must File Required Semiannual Report (Form I-129CWR)

USCIS reminds employers of Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Transitional Workers (CW-1) that, if you have a currently-approved CW-1 petition with a validity period of six months or more, you must file Form I-129CWR, Semiannual Report for CW-1 Employers, with USCIS every six months after the petition validity start date. Employers use this report to certify the continued employment and payment of each worker under the terms and conditions of the approved petition. You are not required to file Form I-129CWR if your petition has been withdrawn for all beneficiaries.

If you fail to comply with the semiannual reporting requirement, we may revoke an approved petition or deny subsequent petitions. To avoid revocation or denial of future petitions, you must either:

• File Form I-129CWR in accordance with the filing instructions located on the Form I-129CWR page; or
• Submit a written request to withdraw your approved CW-1 petition to the California Service Center at the address located under the “Where to File" section of the Form I-129CW, Petition for a CNMI-Only Nonimmigrant Transitional Worker, page.

If you do not submit a written withdrawal of your approved CW-1 petition for all beneficiaries, you will remain subject to the semiannual reporting requirement for the duration of your petition’s validity period, and you must comply with the reporting requirement before a new petition can be approved.

You are still subject to the semiannual reporting requirement even when:

• the worker was never admitted to the CNMI,
• the worker is no longer working for you,
• the worker may have subsequently changed status, or
• you are a CW-1 employer of a long-term worker and you previously submitted Form I-129CWR.

We will accept late-filed semiannual reports. You may submit all required reports, including any overdue reports, to USCIS even if the relevant filing window has passed. For example, if you are an employer of a CW-1 worker with start date of Oct. 1, 2019, who has never filed a semiannual report, USCIS may consider you to be in compliance if you file any semiannual reports that are overdue, and then timely file semiannual reports thereafter. If we revoke your CW-1 petition for failure to comply with the semiannual reporting requirement, you must still file any overdue semiannual reports before a new petition can be approved. Complying with this requirement will not have any effect on an already revoked petition, but will allow you to participate in the CW program in the future even if previous petitions were revoked.

USCIS established the semiannual report requirement in an interim final rule (IFR) implementing the Northern Mariana Islands U.S. Workforce Act of 2018. The IFR established that the semiannual report is required for all CW-1 petitions approved by USCIS with employment start dates beginning on or after Oct. 1, 2019, for a validity period of six months or more. 

Employers can verify if USCIS received the Form I-129CWR by entering the receipt number of the approved Form I-129CW petition in Case Status Online.