A casino in the Northern Marianas is losing staff over changes to contract worker visas.
Best Sunshine International Limited is operating a temporary casino on Saipan while developing its mammoth $US7 billion casino resort.
But the agency that oversees the casino said Best Sunshine had already lost 130 employees since May when US immigration authorities announced that the cap on the number of "Commonwealth-Only" worker status visas for 2016 had been reached.
Executive director of the Commonwealth Casino Commission, Edward Deleon Guerrero, said another 90 workers who have expired permits are expected to exit CNMI this month.
Business groups who had been lobbying authorities on the issue said about 1,300 people, not including their dependants, had been adversely affected by the capping of the permits.
