The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is suspending a programme that allowed prescreened Chinese nationals to visit the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) without a visa, according to a DHS notice in the Federal Register signed by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and reported by IANS. The suspension of the CNMI Economic Vitality and Security Travel Authorization Program, known as EVS-TAP, takes effect at 2 p.m. EDT on October 30.
Source: IANS
The suspension applies both to new applicants and to previously approved travellers holding an existing EVS-TAP authorization, Nation Press reported, citing the same notice. Chinese nationals already in the CNMI under the programme may complete their authorised stay, but will need to obtain a regular US visa for any future travel. DHS said the pause will continue while it reviews the programme in coordination with the secretaries of state and the interior.
Source: Nation Press
EVS-TAP was created under a 2024 rule and took effect on February 20, 2025. It let Chinese visitors stay in the CNMI for up to 14 days, with travel authorisations valid for one year. Travellers were vetted by US Customs and Border Protection rather than by a State Department consular officer — a distinction DHS now criticises. China had been excluded from the broader Guam-CNMI visa waiver programme since 2009 over what the notice called political and security concerns.
In its notice, DHS said it judges that Chinese nationals are 'almost certainly exploiting EVS-TAP' and that the volume of visa-exempt entries 'presents unacceptable security and law enforcement risks'. The department said the programme may be exploited for espionage and intelligence collection against sensitive US defence infrastructure, noting that the military is restoring Tinian Air Base while neighbouring Guam hosts installations it called critical to homeland defence. The notice also cited two federal sentencings — in March 2024 and February 2025 — of Chinese nationals who smuggled nine and seven other Chinese nationals by boat from the CNMI to Guam, and said birth tourism has long been an issue in the islands and that visa-exempt travel may lower barriers to the practice. These are DHS's stated assessments in its notice; the notice did not provide a number of births linked to the programme.
From 2 p.m. EDT on Oct. 30, EVS-TAP authorisations — new and previously approved — no longer work for travel to the Northern Mariana Islands. Visitors already there may finish their authorised stay. Future trips by Chinese nationals will require a regular US visa, as for travel to the US mainland.
DHS acknowledged that CNMI businesses dependent on Chinese tourism and prospective travellers may face losses, but said the acute risks outweighed them, and noted that genuine visitors can still apply for a regular US visa. Republican Senator Mike Lee, who had urged the administration to close the programme, welcomed the move in a post on X. The suspension does not restore the earlier parole arrangement that EVS-TAP replaced in 2025.