By plane
Saipan International Airport SPN is located in the southeast corner of the island. Direct flights are available from Tokyo and Nagoya via Delta Air Lines, Seoul via Korean Air and Asiana, Hong Kong via Fly Guam and the nearby islands of Guam, Tinian, and Rota. There will be direct flights from Shanghai and Guangzhou China starting early 2011 by Sichuan Airlines.
U.S. travelers required passports and had to pass through CNMI Immigration and Customs, as Saipan and the CNMI were considered international locations until November 28,2009. On that date the CNMI Covenant required that the CNMI Federalization of Immigration law became effective. The CNMI remains under CNMI Customs laws.
The Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islandsin Political Union with the United States of America defines the unique relationship between the Northern Mariana Islands and the United States, recognizing U.S. sovereignty but limiting, in some respects, applicability of federal law. The Covenant was negotiated over the course of twenty-seven months December 1972 to February 1975 by the Marianas Political Status Commission an organization representing the Northern Mariana Islands and a delegation representing the United States. The proposed Covenant was signed by negotiators on February 15, 1975, at Saipan. The Covenant is codified at 48 U.S.C. § 1801 note, reprinted in the Northern Mariana Islands Commonwealth Code with case annotations and is also sold in pamphlet format by the Commonwealth Law Revision Commission.
Pursuant to Section 1003a, some Covenant provisions became effective on March 24, 1976, the date of final approval. Remaining provisions took effect on January 9, 1978, and November 4, 1986, the dates specified in Presidential proclamations issued pursuant to Section 1003b-c. On the latter date, qualified residents of the Northern Mariana Islands became U.S. citizens. On June 29, 2009 U.S. Immigration Laws were to take effect, however, they were delayed until November 28, 2009.
U.S. Public Law 94-241, § 1, Mar. 24, 1976, 90 Stat. 263, the measure approving the Covenant, was originally reprinted in the U.S. Code in a note under 48 U.S.C. § 1681. In an official edition of the U.S. Code published in 1986, several provisions of the act were codified as amended as 48 U.S.C. §§ 1801-1805. See also C-201 et seq.
The Covenant is an agreement entered into between the United States government and the government and people of the Northern Mariana Islands. The parties entered into agreement as two separate but equal sovereign entities. The Covenant governs the relationship between the parties.
