US Suspends Visa-Free Entry for Chinese Visitors to Northern Mariana Islands

The Department of Homeland Security is suspending a program that allowed prescreened Chinese nationals to visit the Northern Mariana Islands for up to 14 days without a visa, in a Federal Register notice signed by Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

The suspension of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands Economic Vitality and Security Travel Authorization Program, known as EVS-TAP, takes effect at 2 p.m. EDT on October 30. It applies to new applicants and to travelers who already hold an authorization. Chinese nationals who are already in the islands under the program may finish their authorized stay, but they will need a regular US visa for any future visit.

Why Homeland Security acted

In fiscal year 2025, more than 3,000 Chinese nationals used EVS-TAP to enter the Northern Mariana Islands, according to the notice. Those travelers were screened by Customs and Border Protection instead of by a State Department consular officer. "DHS judges that PRC nationals are almost certainly exploiting EVS-TAP," the notice said, adding that the volume of visa-exempt entries presents unacceptable security and law enforcement risks.

The department said the program may be exploited for espionage aimed at sensitive US defense sites in the region. The Department of War is restoring Tinian Air Base in the Northern Marianas, and neighboring Guam hosts several military installations that the notice calls critical to homeland defense. EVS-TAP barred visitors from traveling beyond the islands, but the notice said travelers can illegally reach Guam aboard smuggling vessels. It cited two federal sentencings, in March 2024 and February 2025, of Chinese nationals who smuggled nine and seven other Chinese nationals from the islands to Guam.

Birth tourism and the cost to the islands

The notice said birth tourism has long been an issue in the Northern Mariana Islands and that visa-exempt travel with reduced vetting may lower the barriers to the practice, in which a visitor travels to US soil mainly to give birth so the child receives US citizenship. The notice gave no number of births linked to the program. It also pointed to criminal activity linked to China in the islands, including money laundering and labor abuses tied to a Chinese-run casino operation on Saipan.

Homeland Security acknowledged that island businesses that depend on Chinese tourism may face losses. It said the acute risks outweighed those costs. Genuine visitors can still apply for a regular US visa, and the suspension does not restore the earlier parole arrangement that EVS-TAP replaced. The suspension stays in place while the department evaluates the program with the secretaries of state and the interior.

A short-lived program

EVS-TAP was created by a rule issued in 2024 under the Biden administration and took effect on February 20, 2025. It allowed 14 day stays, with authorizations valid for one year. China had been excluded from the wider Guam and Northern Mariana Islands visa waiver program since 2009, on what the notice called political and security concerns, which made EVS-TAP the only visa-free route for Chinese tourists to US soil.

Lawmakers who pressed for the change

Senators Mike Lee of Utah, Rick Scott of Florida, John Cornyn of Texas and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana urged Mullin in April to end the program, warning that it encouraged birth tourism and posed national security risks. Lee welcomed the suspension in a post on X on October 26. "America is not a nursery for the CCP to steal citizenship," he wrote. "Thank you, President Trump!" Representatives Chip Roy of Texas and Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin had raised similar concerns in March.