From April 1, 2025, Cubans returning to the island will need to have the updated document
14ymedio, Havana, 6 December 2024 — Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported on Friday that, starting April 1 of next year, Cubans living abroad will need a valid passport to enter the country, thus eliminating an exceptional measure in force since the coronavirus pandemic that allowed entry even with an outdated document.
The statement, signed by the Director General of Consular Affairs and Assistance to Cubans Living Abroad, Ana Teresita González, clarifies that entry with an expired passport may be made until the last day of March.
The text states that consular offices abroad “are fully prepared and capable of providing this service, with the speed required, so that Cubans can enter the country with their valid passport as of April 1, 2025.”
The announcement revokes a temporary measure taken in 2020, in the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The announcement revokes a temporary measure taken in 2020, in the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic, which allowed Cubans residing in other countries to enter the island with their expired passports. The exception included extending the time Cuban citizens could stay abroad beyond the 24 months officially provided for by law, without losing their residency in Cuba.
The measure announced on Friday comes just a few months after the approval of the new Immigration Law , a law that – together with the Immigration and Citizenship Laws – aims to “design procedures” for Cubans leaving the Island and also to control the “increase in the number and diversity of migratory irregularities involving foreigners.”
The measure announced this Friday comes a few months after the approval of the new Migration Law.
The law also provides that Cubans living abroad can keep their properties on the island, even if they have spent more than two years away. Those who spend more than 24 consecutive months without returning to Cuba will no longer be called “emigrants,” and those who spend “most of their time in the national territory” will be called “effective residents.”
The Cuban passport, one of the most expensive in the world at a cost of 180 dollars or euros when issued abroad and 2,500 pesos in the island’s offices, will be valid for 10 years, instead of the previous six years as of July 1, 2023. At that time, the need to extend the validity of the document every two years was also suspended, and the cost of issuing it – which previously varied depending on the country where it was requested – was fixed.
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