Chinese travel to Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands faces renewed uncertainty as influential U.S. lawmakers urge the Biden administration to revoke a niche visa waiver scheme, raising alarms across two Pacific territories that have come to rely on Chinese visitors to support thousands of tourism jobs.
Washington Targets a Little-Known Pacific Travel Loophole
A small and highly technical corner of U.S. immigration policy has abruptly moved to the center of a geopolitical tug-of-war in the Western Pacific. At issue is the Guam–Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) Visa Waiver Program and its related Economic Vitality and Security Travel Authorization Program, known locally as EVS-TAP, which allow certain Chinese nationals and Hong Kong passport holders to enter Saipan and other islands for short stays without a traditional U.S. tourist visa.
In recent months, Republican senators in Washington have pressed the Department of Homeland Security to revoke Chinese access to these programs, arguing they constitute a dangerous back door into U.S. territory. A January 2026 letter from Senators Rick Scott, Jim Banks and Markwayne Mullin asked Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to move swiftly to end visa-free access for Chinese nationals to the CNMI and to remove Hong Kong from the broader Guam–CNMI visa waiver framework, citing birth tourism, illegal migration and national security concerns.
The senators contend that the carve-out for Chinese travelers, which does not apply elsewhere in the United States, no longer aligns with a tougher national security posture toward Beijing. Their demands follow years of warnings from conservative think tanks and some members of Congress who say the program has been abused by human smugglers and exploited by individuals seeking to bypass scrutiny at U.S. consulates in China.
While no formal termination order has been issued, the tone of the debate and the tight timelines requested by lawmakers have ignited fears in Guam and the CNMI that Washington could act quickly, with potentially devastating effects on already fragile tourism economies.
How the Guam–CNMI Visa Waiver for Chinese Travelers Works
The Guam–CNMI Visa Waiver Program operates alongside the better-known U.S. Visa Waiver Program but is geographically limited to the two Pacific territories. It permits citizens of a small group of countries and regions to visit Guam and the CNMI without a standard tourist visa for up to 45 days, subject to specific screening and documentation rules. For the CNMI, an additional layer, EVS-TAP, was introduced as a security-focused electronic authorization specifically tailored to short-stay visitors from mainland China.
Under the current structure, Hong Kong passport holders may enter Guam and the CNMI visa-free for up to 45 days, while eligible Chinese nationals can visit the CNMI for up to 14 days through EVS-TAP, following advance vetting and approval. Guam, which is technically covered by the same overall statute, has in practice seen fewer Chinese arrivals in recent years, but any broad rollback of Chinese participation could affect both territories’ tourism strategies and air service planning.
EVS-TAP was designed over several years as part of a compromise between local officials seeking to rebuild a critical source market and federal agencies intent on tightening oversight. Local business groups note that the framework incorporates enhanced data-sharing with federal law enforcement, more rigorous pre-clearance of travelers and closer monitoring of repeat visitors. They argue that EVS-TAP functions less as a loophole and more as a bespoke security tool that still allows controlled economic engagement with China.
Despite these safeguards, critics in Washington see the program as an anomaly out of step with a broader clampdown on Chinese access to U.S. critical infrastructure and sensitive locations. They point to the proximity of major U.S. military installations on Guam, including Andersen Air Force Base and Naval Base Guam, as justification for eliminating any policy they believe could facilitate espionage or unauthorized entry.
Economic Stakes: A Tourism-Dependent Region on the Brink
For Guam and the Northern Marianas, the debate is not abstract. Tourism remains the lifeblood of their economies, supporting a dense ecosystem of hotels, restaurants, tour operators, transport companies and small retailers. Even before the pandemic, the CNMI had become uniquely dependent on Chinese visitors, who once accounted for more than 40 percent of arrivals, drawn in part by gaming operations and direct air links from cities across China.
Those flows collapsed during the pandemic and have been slow to recover, leaving many businesses shuttered and employment opportunities severely constrained. According to local tourism and hotel associations, the territories have yet to regain pre-2019 visitor volumes, with overall airline seat capacity to the CNMI down by more than two-thirds compared with 2018. Industry leaders say that Chinese travelers, though far fewer in number than at the height of the boom, still represent one of the few realistic prospects for long-term recovery and reinvestment.
Local chambers of commerce and the Marianas Visitors Authority warn that any abrupt suspension of EVS-TAP or removal of Chinese and Hong Kong travelers from the visa waiver program could trigger another sharp contraction. With labor markets still fragile and government finances strained, officials say thousands of tourism-linked jobs could again be at risk, from front desk agents and tour guides to taxi drivers and food suppliers who depend heavily on visitor spending.
For many small and family-owned businesses, especially in Saipan, Tinian and Rota, the threat is existential. Hoteliers stress that investment decisions, staffing levels and route negotiations with airlines are all calibrated around assumptions about future Chinese demand, however modest compared with the pre-pandemic wave. A sudden policy shift in Washington, they argue, would leave them few options beyond layoffs, wage cuts or closure.
Security Fears: Birth Tourism, Smuggling and Strategic Tensions
Supporters of ending the visa waiver frame the issue as a straightforward matter of security and sovereignty. They cite a rise in so-called birth tourism in the CNMI during the 2010s, when hundreds of Chinese women traveled to Saipan each year to give birth, securing U.S. citizenship for their children. Federal and local data show that annual births to visiting Chinese mothers surged from single digits to several hundred at the peak of the trend, prompting concerns about strain on the public hospital and questions over the long-term immigration implications for families involved.
Lawmakers also highlight a series of cases in which Chinese nationals used the CNMI as a springboard for illegal entry into Guam and, by extension, deeper into the United States. Court filings describe migrants paying smugglers thousands of dollars to move them by small boat from Saipan to Guam, sometimes with tragic or dangerous outcomes when vessels ran out of fuel or passengers were forced to swim ashore. Security-focused commentators argue that these incidents underscore how even tightly drafted visa waivers can be exploited by traffickers and organized networks.
Beyond individual abuses, critics situate the program within a wider U.S.–China rivalry across the Indo-Pacific. With Guam hosting key assets central to U.S. military operations, some senators and analysts warn that permissive travel channels for Chinese nationals to nearby islands could be leveraged for intelligence gathering, cyber operations or influence campaigns. In their January letter, the senators cast the visa waiver as incompatible with a newly articulated national security strategy that pairs economic resilience with stricter border controls.
Conservative policy institutes have amplified those concerns, questioning why Chinese nationals should retain a quasi-privileged pathway to U.S. soil at a time when Washington is tightening investment screening and scrutinizing Chinese ownership of critical infrastructure. They argue that whatever tourism benefits the territories derive from Chinese arrivals do not outweigh the perceived systemic risks.
Local Leaders Push Back, Citing Reforms and New Data
Territorial leaders and business coalitions in the CNMI have responded with an unusually unified message: that Washington’s critics are relying on outdated information and overlooking reforms already in place. Delegate Kimberlyn King-Hinds, the CNMI’s non-voting representative to Congress, has said that while she shares concerns about national security, current data do not support wholesale revocation of EVS-TAP or the broader Guam–CNMI visa waiver framework for Chinese and Hong Kong travelers.
Tourism officials point out that birth tourism has plummeted since its 2018 peak, following targeted policy changes, stricter documentation checks and a shift in airline routes that reduced direct capacity from mainland China. They add that collaboration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security has been significantly strengthened, with improved information-sharing and more robust screening at ports of entry.
The Saipan Chamber of Commerce and hotel associations argue that EVS-TAP itself was created to address many of the very problems now being cited as justification for its removal. The system, they say, requires advance electronic authorization, cross-checks applicants against watchlists and restricts stays to a tightly controlled 14-day window. Business groups insist that the program can be further refined in cooperation with federal agencies rather than scrapped outright.
For local politicians, the debate is also about representation and fairness. They stress that Guam and the CNMI have limited influence over federal rulemaking but bear the full brunt of any economic fallout. Several leaders have urged Homeland Security to consult more closely with territorial governments and industry stakeholders before making decisions that could reshape the islands’ economic future for years.
Guam Caught Between Military Buildup and Tourism Dependence
On Guam, the conversation reflects a delicate balancing act between its role as a forward U.S. military hub and its identity as a holiday destination marketed to Asian travelers. The island is in the midst of a multibillion-dollar defense buildup, with new facilities and rotational forces drawing global attention to its strategic significance. At the same time, its tourism sector, historically driven by visitors from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, has been working to diversify source markets and rebuild after the pandemic.
Local officials acknowledge concerns about illegal entries by Chinese nationals who arrive in the region on tourist itineraries but then attempt to reach Guam by irregular means. Guam’s law enforcement agencies have reported more than a hundred such cases over the past several years, prompting calls for tighter coordination with federal authorities and neighboring islands. Some policymakers say these incidents strengthen the argument for rethinking lenient travel pathways from nearby jurisdictions.
Yet many in Guam’s private sector caution against conflating a limited number of smuggling cases with the broader profile of legitimate Chinese tourists. They note that the island’s visitor industry is still struggling with labor shortages, higher operating costs and uneven air connectivity. For them, any policy that further complicates travel from emerging markets, including China, risks slowing the recovery and undermining efforts to sustain year-round flight schedules.
Analysts say Guam’s experience underscores the difficulty of crafting one-size-fits-all rules in a region where security and economic interests are deeply intertwined. While the island’s military footprint makes Washington particularly sensitive to potential vulnerabilities, its tourism workers and business owners are acutely exposed to shifts in demand driven by federal immigration decisions.
Airlines, Hotels and Workers Watch for Signals From Washington
In both Guam and the CNMI, the travel industry is now closely tracking signals from Homeland Security and the White House for clues about the program’s fate. Airlines planning seasonal or charter services from Chinese cities to Saipan and Guam must make decisions months in advance, factoring in not only demand forecasts but also the regulatory environment governing which passengers can board.
Hotel operators say they have already seen hesitancy among Chinese partners and tour wholesalers, who worry that clients might face sudden rule changes or heightened scrutiny. The requirement for pre-travel electronic authorization, while manageable for many, adds an element of uncertainty in a market that has plenty of alternative destinations across Asia and the Pacific where entry procedures are more predictable.
For front-line tourism workers, from airport greeters to dive instructors, the debate in Washington can feel distant yet deeply personal. Many still recall layoffs and reduced hours during the pandemic and subsequent downturns. The prospect of a fresh policy shock targeting one of the few growing visitor segments is prompting anxiety about job security and career prospects, especially for younger workers who have limited pathways outside the service sector.
Labor advocates say that federal officials should factor these human impacts into their deliberations, noting that residents of Guam and the Northern Marianas are U.S. citizens whose livelihoods depend on policy choices made thousands of miles away. While national security must remain paramount, they argue, the costs of abrupt changes should not be borne disproportionately by small island communities with few alternative industries.
Searching for a Middle Ground Between Security and Access
As the Department of Homeland Security reviews the senators’ request, there are signs that some stakeholders are looking for compromise rather than an all-or-nothing outcome. Options under informal discussion among policy specialists include tightening eligibility criteria for EVS-TAP, shortening the maximum stay, increasing information-sharing with intelligence agencies, and imposing stricter penalties on carriers that transport noncompliant passengers.
Another possibility floated by tourism groups is a phased approach in which any changes to Chinese participation in the visa waiver scheme are announced well ahead of implementation, allowing businesses and workers time to adjust. They argue that sudden, surprise terminations would not only damage the territories’ economies but could also push travelers and operators toward less transparent or more risky channels.
Whether such middle-ground solutions will satisfy critics in Congress remains unclear. Some lawmakers have staked out positions that favor a clean break with what they see as an outdated experiment in localized immigration flexibility. Others, including representatives who work closely with Guam and CNMI leaders, appear more open to preserving a tightly controlled version of the program that aligns with evolving security requirements.
For now, Chinese travelers contemplating trips to Guam or the Northern Marianas must navigate a shifting landscape of political rhetoric, security reviews and economic pressures. On the ground, the stakes are unmistakable: in small Pacific communities where tourism still anchors public revenue and private opportunity, the fate of a narrowly tailored visa waiver could determine how quickly, and how fully, recovery takes hold.