About Us
The CNMI International Workers Contribution Inc is to provide support to foreign workers who had a Commonwealth Issued Contract Worker Visa between the years of 1990-2009 who paid into the U.S. Social Security System. These workers who paid into the U.S. Social Security System came from Thailand, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh,and Peoples's Republic of China (PRC).
The Organization will support these workers by (1) educating these workers their rights regarding their contributions to the U.S. Social Security System,(2) educating relevant foreign government consular officers, government officials, and non-governmental organizations such about U.S. laws and regulations, and policies regarding the treatment of the CNMI Contract Workers,(3) facilitate the exchange of knowledge between the U.S. government and various foreign governments to resolve the Social Security contributions made by these workers; and (4) in conjunction with other law firms provide legal assistance where the CIWCI has special expertise or resources on the matter regarding the workers’ contributions and (5) following developments and acquiring expertise in transnational social security issues, particularly those related to these workers, and providing policy analysis and recommendations to Foreign Governments and U.S. policy-makers and workers advocacy groups.
I brought three class actions on behalf of these workers a decade ago. The short and sweet of it is that the US Government had to create case law to make the social security taxes(FICA) apply to the Commonwealth because the IRC was not updated to include the CNMI in that specific section. However, other areas of the IRC did include the CNMI just not the FICA tax provisions. Regardless of the merits of my argument, I lost but now there is an opportunity to revisit these workers' contributions. These workers were all exempt from U.S. Minimum Wage but were subject to 7.65% federal FICA taxes making them the highest tax lowest paid workers in the United States. I have been presented with an opportunity to work with a foreign government that desires to enter into a Totalization Agreement with U.S. Social Security so that their worker's contributions can be given credit in their home country.