Development & Aid, Headlines, Latin America & the Caribbean, Population

CUBA: Red Tape Makes Travel Expensive – or Impossible

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Feb 27 2004 (IPS) - The difficulty of obtaining a visa to visit other countries often frustrates the dream of travelling abroad shared by many Cubans, who are already overwhelmed by the cumbersome internal requirements that make it hard to even leave this socialist island nation in the first place.

”There is so much paperwork and red tape, which costs so much money, that I’m not even sure anymore if it’s worth all the trouble,” says María Teresa, a young professional who has been invited by her childhood friend to visit Spain, the second-biggest destination for Cuban emigrés after the United States.

She has reasons to hesitate. One of her neighbours won, with the help of friends, a scholarship to study in Spain, but failed to attain a visa, ”and she had already spent over 1,000 dollars, just to legalise her degree and other documents from the university,” she says.

Besides that sum, a real fortune in a country where the average monthly salary is equivalent to around 10 dollars at the official exchange rate, the frustrated student had to fork over 35 dollars for a special medical check-up and 55 dollars for a passport.

”And if she had gotten the visa, she would have needed another 150 dollars for the exit permit allowing her to leave the country, and between 600 and 700 dollars for the round-trip ticket,” says María Teresa, approached by IPS as she waits in line outside the Spanish consulate.

In addition, European embassies in Cuba have tightened the requirements for an entry visa. Most of them now demand, among a slew of other documents, a notarised letter of invitation in which the prospective host pledges to take responsibility for the Cuban guest’s expenses during their stay.

The United States, the main destination for Cubans who are emigrating or merely visiting family members abroad, has also set stricter standards, especially since the Sep. 11, 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.

”This is the third time I’ve applied for a visa to go and visit my son, and they’ve turned me down once again,” says a visibly dejected woman resting in a park near the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

The spot has been popularly dubbed ”the park of lamentations”, not so much because of its location across from a funeral home, but due to the number of people who sit there trying to come to grips with their disappointment after failing to obtain a visa to visit loved ones in the United States.

”The woman who interviewed me told me that for now, I can’t go,” says the woman in the park, who appears to be around 60. Like all Cubans who apply for a U.S. visa, she had to pay a 100 dollar nonrefundable fee for the meeting with a consular official.

”And last year I had to pay an extra 50 dollars to get a turn,” she adds.

According to her daughter, the ‘coleros’ – people who make an improvised living selling spots in the long lines that form outside the U.S. Special Interests Section – were charging up to 130 dollars for a turn early this year.

But that sometimes lucrative business was brought to a halt on Feb. 9, when the Special Interests Section set up a system for requesting visa application interviews by telephone.

The new system triggered a debate between those who see it as a good way to eliminate the ”turn-selling” racket, and those who feel more hopeless than ever, given the difficulties of communicating by telephone, especially from outlying districts.

Since 2002, the applications submitted by all Cubans between the ages of 16 and 60 – regardless of whether the applicants say they would like to emigrate to the United States or merely visit – have been subjected to a strict review in the United States after being approved by U.S. consular officials in Havana.

That procedure, which can delay the process by two or three months, is now applied in the case of Cuba and other countries that Washington deems ”sponsors of terrorism.”

According to U.S. officials, of the 45,000 to 50,000 Cubans who applied for visas to visit the United States in 2002, between 20,000 and 25,000 were granted visas. But observers say the figures could be lower for 2003, when the new review system for processing visa applications was fully in effect.

In the migration accords signed by the United States – where more than one million Cubans and people of Cuban descent reside – and Havana, Washington pledged to issue 20,000 visas a year to Cubans wishing to emigrate.

Researchers point out that the desire to emigrate was accentuated by the severe economic crisis of the 1990s, which was triggered by the collapse of the Soviet Union and the East European socialist bloc. Finding a way to move overseas became more of a survival strategy than anything else.

Several measures adopted by Cuban authorities in the 1990s made the requirements for travelling abroad more flexible, and it became possible to make short and even medium-length visits to family members in the United States, for example, without renouncing the possibility of returning to Cuba.

Thanks to those changes, the Cuban government now allows people to visit abroad for stretches of up to 11 months, or even apply for residency permits in other nations if they have a work contract overseas or marry a foreigner.

”In the past, emigration was perceived as a permanent situation. But now there is the possibility of temporary migration which, without a doubt, changes the significance of this phenomenon for society,” states a study published by the Cuban magazine Temas.

A conference on ”The Nation and Emigration” to be held in May, which has been organised by the government with the aim of strengthening dialogue with Cubans living overseas, revived rumours on the possibility of new measures that would make it even easier to travel abroad.

Word has it that the period of time that Cubans would be allowed to stay overseas will be expanded to two years, and that the current requisites of a letter of invitation and an exit permit would be eliminated.

”I think that’s what people are hoping for, but there is a big stretch from there to the actual adoption of such measures,” says María Teresa.

So far, local authorities have merely confirmed that in the next few months, Cubans living abroad will be able to travel to the island without the need to apply for an entry visa, which they must now obtain before visiting their families here.

”They, who left the country, will be able to enter without authorisation, while I, who only wants to travel for three months and return, have to apply for an exit permit,” complains the young woman, whose friend in Madrid spent 150 dollars on the invitation letter required by Cuba’s migration authorities.