Nine long months have passed since the Cuban Parliament approved this regulation, still unpublished
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, 30 April 2025 — Stuck in limbo: this is how Dayuri, 47, feels. She arrived in Miami from Havana at the end of 2023 after crossing the U.S. southern border. In December, the two-year period expires, which the Cuban authorities allow her for being off the Island without losing her residence and ownership of a house in Cerro municipality. Cuba’s new Migration, Citizenship and Aliens laws, which eliminate this requirement, have not even been published in the Official Gazette.
Nine long months have passed since the Cuban Parliament approved the regulations regulating core issues such as permanent residence on the Island, the right to retain property even when living outside the country and the mechanisms through which foreigners can settle and invest in the national territory. For Dayuri the delay may mean the loss of the family home she inherited from her parents, who died during the covid-19 pandemic.
“When I left, there was already talk of new legislation coming and that they were going to remove the obligation to return after 24 months,” she told 14ymedio. In mid-2024, when she had already been in the U.S. for more than half a year, Dayuri was relieved to see all Cuban parliamentarians voting unanimously for the new regulations. “I thought that before Christmas they were going to publish it in the Gazette and that my house was going to be secure.”
“We are about to lose our homes and legal residence in Cuba but without obtaining them here”
But so far the new legislation has not appeared in the Official Gazette of the Republic, after which 180 days still have to pass before it comes into force. The delay affects an undetermined number of migrants who are about to complete their two years outside Cuba but have not yet obtained legal residence in the U.S., without which they must not leave U.S. territory; otherwise, they will not be able to return.
“I search and search in the news, and nobody talks about this. Everyone comments on the deportations, the Cuban Adjustment Law, the I220-A visas, but no one says anything about our situation. We are about to lose our homes and legal residence in Cuba but without obtaining them here,” Dayari says. She is right. If the subject of the Migration, Citizenship and Aliens laws made headlines in the official Cuban press prior to its approval, it seems to have disappeared from the information agenda months ago.
The most awaited is the Migration Law, because of what it means for properties on the Island. Its entry into force invalidates numerous procedures related to both the Directorate of Identification, Immigration and Aliens and the Housing Institute, in addition to requiring updates for notaries and Cuban consulates.
So far, after 24 uninterrupted months outside the country, the owner loses his rights to his home
So far, after 24 uninterrupted months outside the country, the owner loses his rights to his home. To avoid the seizure of the property by the State, the owners give a power of attorney to a relative, friend or acquaintance to sell, transfer or donate the house. With the mass exodus that the Island is experiencing, the current legislation has triggered this type of paperwork and bureaucratic red tape.
The solution for Orlando, a citizen of Cienfuegos who arrived in Houston last August and has not yet been granted U.S. residency, was to give power of attorney for his brother to sell or transfer his property if the Migration Law continues to be delayed and he fails to keep the house in Abreus municipality in his name. The procedure costs between $150 and $300 in consulates in the United States, where a large Cuban community resides. In recent years, with the migration stampede, the need to carry out this paperwork has multiplied.
A number of private companies outside the Island have emerged as intermediaries to expedite and secure procedures. Through one of them, Orlando organized his process. “I trust my brother, but there are people who have had to give power of attorney to a neighbor or a friend because their stay away is about to reach two years, and it’s either that or lose the house.” The biggest nightmare of the migrant is “to be deported from the U.S. and arrive at my town to see that my house, which cost me so many sacrifices, is now in someone else’s name.”
Orlando finds it hard to believe that in a country that has experienced the largest migratory exodus in its history in recent years, “it is not a priority to finish fixing this two-year issue so that people can keep their homes even if they spend years and years outside the country.” He regrets that the complaints on social networks are directed more towards the U.S. than to Cuba. “We spend our lives demanding that they legalize Cubans in the U.S., but I do not see the same insistence in Cuba to accelerate the Migration Law.”
“We spend our lives demanding that they legalize Cubans in the U.S., but I do not see the same insistence in Cuba to accelerate the Migration Law”
Once the regulations are in place, not only can those who are away spend as much time as they want without returning to Cuba and not lose their home, but a Cuban who does not reside on the Island will be able to acquire property. “It is an earthquake that will happen at the level of the legislation for houses, and they are still projecting and calculating the consequences,” explains to 14ymedio a worker from the Housing Institute who asks for anonymity.
According to the employee, “a change in the Housing Law has been on the table for years to make it more flexible not only with regard to the property of those who reside outside but also to allow those inside to own more than one dwelling under the same name,” she explains. ” With the new Migration Law, it must be remembered that there will no longer be a concept of ’emigrated’ but rather one of effective residence and another that is not, depending on whether or not you spend most of the time in a year in Cuba or not.”
But it’s not only houses that are at stake. Once the regulations enter into force, Cubans residing off the Island will be able to apply for “investor” status. This possibility is currently closed to them and will open the door to hundreds of thousands of potential investors.
One of them is Enrique, name changed, who has lived since the 1980s in Berlin, Germany. As a student in East Germany, after the wall came down, he decided to settle in the country, where he married and later retired. “I have saved money and would like to open a business of rental houses in Havana, specifically in the neighborhood of Santos Suarez, where I was born.”
Enrique, however, is considered under current legislation to be a Cuban resident abroad with no right to property or a business on the Island. “Since the new law was passed, I have often called the consulate to find out when it will be implemented, and they just give me a hard time,” he complains. ” This surprises me, because there is legislation that has been announced on the same day that it is published in the Gazette, which comes into force 24 hours later.”
“There appears to be no political will for this Migration Act to enter into force as soon as possible”
“They made a lot of noise announcing it, publishing the discussions in Parliament, but now it seems that there is no political will for this Migration Law to come into force as soon as possible and solve the situation of so many Cubans. My friends have recommended that I look for several front men, within my own family, who have properties in Santos Suarez, and I can manage them from here, but that’s not the way I want to do business.”
For Dayari, time is running out. Unlike Orlando or Enrique, she has no one to whom to transfer the ownership of her home. In her mind, two countdowns resonate at the same time without giving her a break. One marks the time remaining to obtain residence in the United States after almost two years of upheavals. The second ends in December, when under Cuban law she becomes an emigrant without the right to have a home on the Island.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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