Going to Cuba
 

"A friend of mine" is going to Cuba in a few months. Would like to go legally if possible but will consider limboing beneath the legal tripwires if not.

Any suggestions? Any recent experiences there to share?

Having looked into going to Cuba before I understand that the odds of getting caught are relativly small. Cuban immigration officials will stamp a piece of paper instead of your passport if you ask them too. However it is always easier to go legally and there are a number of tours that go regularly. However do remember that travel to Cuba is legal, you just can spend money in Cuba. Lastly if your friend has a non-US passport he can travel on it and travel as a citizen of ________, not as an American, in that case there are no restricitions.

P.S. This is all from what I remember as of about 2 years ago, it could have changed, especially with the Bush Administration

I would suggest we try to keep politcal commentary out of our messages.

Note that just because a tour company claims a trip is "legal", doesn't mean it is. There was an article that I read a few months ago about how there's been a crackdown in the past few years on travel to Cuba, including folks who thought they were on "legal" tours getting into trouble.

This is not true. The ban is incumbent upon "all persons subject to US jurisdiction" which includes persons who may be citizens and residents of other countries but have any links to the United States (such as a bank account with a US bank, business dealings with US entities, etc...).

I am a citizen of India and a resident of India who was considering travel to Cuba on a vacation this year. I contacted the US Treasury department's Office of Foreign Assets Control to clarify the legalities and was informed that due to the fact that I maintain a bank account in the US as well as have equity stakes in companies dealing with the US, I would be considered a "person subject to U.S. jurisdiction" and the travel embargo applied to me as well. If I disregarded this embargo and traveled to Cuba, I was risking potential seizure of assets in the United States as well as legal proceedings. Additionally, any foreign citizen who subsequently visits the United States as a tourist at ANY TIME after visiting Cuba is also considered to be a "person subject to U.S. jurisdiction" and is subject to retroactive prosecution.

In fact, foreign citizens are at a disadvantage when traveling to Cuba because they are not eligible to apply to the US Treasury department for a license to deal with Cuba, whereas US Citizens can. They are also not entitled to the constitutional protections against retroactive prosecution that US Citizens are. Hence, my reccomendation is for non-US citizens to steer away from visiting Cuba if they ever have intention of dealing with the United States in the future.

I fail to see where I included any political commentary in my message. The Bush Administration has made it more difficult to travel to Cuba. This fact, not commentary, however if you would like to discuss the merits of the embargo please feel free to e-mail me.

On what do you base this assertion?

I am a U.S. citizen and a 14 year resident of Mexico...and going to Cuba is a piece of cake from here. While I probably won´t be running into B747-437B on my next visit, I have no paranoia whatsoever, and you shouldn´t either. And as far as the U.S. government retaliating or seizing my property in the U.S., give me a break. Both MX and Cubana fly nonstop from MEX, and Cubana has mojitos in business class on their early am flight, so you arrive in a great mood. Have fun. The music is great. The people are great. The food is great. The U.S. policy is...well, no political commentary.

Personal experience.

A trip to Cuba is simply not worth the "permanent" trouble that it could cause.

I have also researched the legalities (and consequences) involved with US citizen travel to Cuba. Using the hypothetical scenario of a LEGAL, "fully-hosted" trip to Cuba, here are two of the conclusions reached:

1. The traveler would be subject to indefinite close scrutiny by Customs and the INS, receiving at least a full interrogation and baggage check EVERY time he or she tried to enter the United States.

2. If the traveler is or sought to be employed by the Federal Government, he or she could pretty much kiss any hope of a job in a sensitive (e.g., requiring security clearance) position goodbye, even if the job application is many years after the trip.

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[This message has been edited by avek00 (edited 10-07-2002).]

Here is the absolute real story based upon personal experience. The way to go to Cuba is through Cancun. You can call the Ritz Carlton Cancun and ask for the travel agent on the first floor. She will be happy to show up at the airport with your tickets to Havana and your hotel reservations. You will have to prepay for this stuff, of course. DO NOT ENTER MEXICO USING YOUR PASSPORT. USE YOUR DRIVER's LICENSE AND YOUR BIRTH CERTIFICATE. When you get to Havana put your passport into an envelope that says on the outside in Spanish "please do not stamp my passport". When you come back to Mexico from Havana, use your driver's license and birth certificate once again. When you come back to the US do not use your passport to reenter. By following these suggestions you will not have to explain anything about gaps in your passport, i.e., "It seems from your passport as though you went to Mexico and then went somewhere else for a week; where was that somewhere else?" The stamp that gets put into your passport in Cuba, if you elect to be so stupid, is a small tiny little stamp that no customs officer will recognize, however, you would be exposing yourself to substantial risk to be so stupid. If you get caught the opening offer from Washington D.C. will be a $250,000 fine, if they cannot prove that you deliberately went to Cuba in violation of the rules; more if they can prove it. The fine can be negotiated down to $5,000 (ask me how I know), but you do not need to go there. Cuba is one of the most interesting countries you will ever visit as long as you are not at the end of a line that is 100,000 deep (which, of course, will be the case once the country is open to U.S. tourists). Check out the Palacio de Salsa--live music doesn't start until 12:30. Hotel de Nacional is not cheap nor are most of the tourist destinations. Get out of metropolitan Havana. Go to the south side of the island.

I have visited Cuba with several US Citizens and they have had no problems with gaps in their passports. The above posts include all the advice you need to make a safe and fun trip to Cuba and face no problems when you return to the States.

It is my understanding that travel to cuba is not illegal - but spending any US$ is - making it a difficult proposition. I have heard of many people going via canada and mexico without ever facing any problems. I doubt significant resources are presently spent on tracking this type of 'crime'.

I don't think anyone is arguing that there are ways of going to Cuba which can avoid detection. However, the annoying thing to us non-US citizens is that we are being denied freedom of travel by a Government other than our own due to their own unilateral imposition of laws. I don't care whether I can "get away" with something simply because the law is rarely enforced - if it is against the law, then I would rather not run the risk of having my assets frozen and/or confiscated. I think it is highly arrogant that the United States seeks to regulate the travel of foreign nationals that lies completely outside their territory while at the same time granting licenses to their own nationals under certain conditions. THAT is my gripe with the Cuba embargo.

The restrictions imposed by the U.S. on foreign citizens was clearly an attempt to force as much of the world as possible into compliance with its Cuba embargo policy many years ago. It didn´t work (or last) in Canada and Mexico (or anywhere else that I really know of), who's citizens with assets in the U.S. have been going to Cuba freely for years and having a great time, without having anything seized or frozen. B747-437B, you don´t seem like a rebellious kinda guy from your posts, but maybe, just maybe, you are allowing yourself to be willingly victimized by this "we make the rules for the rest of the world too" policy, and going to Cuba may be a liberating experience for you. Not to mention a ton of fun.