The Northern Marianas Labour Department says the capping of foreign workers in the Northern Marianas will have a detrimental effect on some businesses.
The US Commonwealth has reached its cap of almost 13-thousand foreign workers for 2017 with 11 months left in the fiscal year.
That means some workers will be unable to renew their visas and will be forced to leave according to Labor Secretary Edith DeLeon Guerrero.
She said that would affect local businesses, as it did when the cap was reached early last year.
"It would definitely have a negative impact. We remember the first time when we experienced a cap being reached and some of the businesses actually temporarily shut down their operations because they got caught in the cap situation," she said.
Edith DeLeon Guerrero said applications are currently processed as they are received, but they are considering whether priority could be given to renewals.
