CUBA: ENTRY/EXIT REQUIREMENTS FOR U.S. CITIZENS

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Travelers may visit 'close relatives' (including, for example, aunts, uncles, cousins, and second cousins) who are nationals of Cuba.

The US Treasury Thursday eased restrictions on travel and money transfers to Cuba, five months after President Barack Obama announced the measures in a bid to improve ties with the communist island.

The changes to Treasury rules, which take effect immediately, focus on visits by Cubans living in the United States to the island, remittances by Cuban-Americans to their relatives, and telecommunications.

The 47-year-old US economic embargo on Cuba however remains.

The goal is to "promote greater contact between separated family members in the United States and Cuba" and also to "increase the flow of remittances and information to the Cuban people," the Treasury said.

"Travelers may visit 'close relatives' (including, for example, aunts, uncles, cousins, and second cousins) who are nationals of Cuba," the statement said, adding that there was no limit on the duration or frequency of the visits.

There is also no limit on the amount of remittances Cuban-Americans can send to their "close relatives" on the island, though restrictions remain on sending money to "prohibited" officials in the Cuban government and members of the Communist Party.

US-based travelers however are limited to spending 179 dollars a day on their visit to Cuban relatives.

The move also opens a wide array of telecommunications links to the island, after decades of antipathy between Washington and Havana.

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AFP: US Treasury eases cash, travel restrictions on Cuba



AFP - Cuban-American (R) arrives from Miami at the Jose Marti international airport in Havana

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The Cuban Assets Control Regulations are enforced by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and affect all U.S. citizens and permanent residents wherever they are located, all people and organizations physically located in the United States, and all branches and subsidiaries of U.S. organizations throughout the world. The regulations require that persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction be licensed in order to engage in any travel-related transactions pursuant to travel to, from, and within Cuba. Transactions related to tourist travel are not licensable. This restriction includes tourist travel to Cuba from or through a third country such as Mexico or Canada. U.S. law enforcement authorities enforce these regulations at U.S. airports and pre-clearance facilities in third countries. Travelers who fail to comply with Department of the Treasury regulations could face civil penalties and criminal prosecution upon return to the United States.

For the latest information on travel to Cuba and to view the most accurate and updated travel restrictions information, please see: U.S. Treasury - Sanctions Program Summaries - Cuba. General licenses are granted to the following categories of travelers, who are permitted to spend money to travel to Cuba and to engage in other transactions directly incident to the purpose of their travel, without the need to obtain a specific license from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC):

• U.S. persons with close relatives (any individual related to a person by blood, marriage, or adoption who is no more than three generations removed from that person or from a common ancestor with that person) who are nationals of Cuba and persons who share the same dwelling as a family with the person who has the relatives in Cuba may currently travel to Cuba once per 12 months for unlimited length of stay. (According to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, third country nationals who reside in Cuba are considered to be Cuban nationals.) For additional trips to Cuba, a specific license may be issued.
• Journalists and supporting broadcasting or technical personnel (regularly employed in that capacity by a news reporting organization and traveling for journalistic activities).
• Official government travelers on official business.
• Members of international organizations of which the United States is also a member (traveling on official business).
• Full-time professionals, whose travel transactions are directly related to research in their professional areas, provided that their research: 1) is of a noncommercial, academic nature; 2) comprises a full work schedule in Cuba; and 3) has a substantial likelihood of public dissemination.
• Full-time professionals whose travel transactions are directly related to attendance at professional meetings or conferences in Cuba that are organized by an international professional organization, institution, or association that regularly sponsors such meetings or conferences in other countries. An organization, institution, or association headquartered in the United States may not sponsor such a meeting or conference unless it has been specifically licensed to sponsor it. The purpose of the meeting or conference cannot be the promotion of tourism in Cuba or other commercial activities involving Cuba, or to foster production of any bio-technological products.

Travelers who do not qualify for a general license may be eligible for a specific OFAC license if their travel falls under one of the following categories:

• Specific Licenses to Visit Close Relatives in Cuba who are non-Cuban nationals
• Specific Licenses for Educational Institutions
• Specific Licenses for Religious Organizations
• Other Specific Licenses

More information available at:

USA.gov - Cuba