Cuba and visa?

[AdrianaDeLaCruz]

So you need a special visa to travel to Cuba on a cruise?

 

 

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[hannibal54]

So you need a special visa to travel to Cuba on a cruise?

 

 

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Yes, it is $75.00 per person. The ship will help you with this & charge you the Visa fee. You will also have to fill out an affidavit & keep track of your records for 5 years after your cruise.

[VidaNaPraia]

Yes, it is $75.00 per person. The ship will help you with this & charge you the Visa fee. You will also have to fill out an affidavit & keep track of your records for 5 years after your cruise.

 

Note that the $75 price is what your particular cruise line has decided to charge for the pink tourist card/visa.

 

(Some airlines are selling them for up to U$100 and some for U$50, and prices in between, including some handling fee. The Cuban Embassy in DC charges U$70 with handling/mailing iirc.)

[AdrianaDeLaCruz]

Thank you both!

 

 

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[pbenjamin]

Yes, it is $75.00 per person. The ship will help you with this & charge you the Visa fee. You will also have to fill out an affidavit & keep track of your records for 5 years after your cruise.

 

Your affadavit will offer you two choices.

 

515.565 (b). People-to-People Exchange Arranged by a Sponsoring Organization

 

515.565(b). Self-Guided People-to-People Exchange

 

The first one refers to the ship-sponsored excursions. 5 year retention of records is only a requirement of the second one.

 

In our case, we checked BOTH boxes and went out on our own for much of our 4 days of Cuba. Being herded about in tour buses got old really fast.

[VidaNaPraia]

Your affadavit will offer you two choices.

 

515.565 (b). People-to-People Exchange Arranged by a Sponsoring Organization

 

515.565(b). Self-Guided People-to-People Exchange

 

The first one refers to the ship-sponsored excursions. 5 year retention of records is only a requirement of the second one.

 

In our case, we checked BOTH boxes and went out on our own for much of our 4 days of Cuba. Being herded about in tour buses got old really fast.

 

How odd that they only offer one of the 12 legal reasons to travel.

[sandij]

the one I printed out from Carnival has 13 options and some of those with sub options.

[pbenjamin]

Sorry, wasn't clear. All 12 are on the affadavit, meant to say you are offered two choices for person-to-person travel.

[VidaNaPraia]

 

515.565 (b). People-to-People Exchange Arranged by a Sponsoring Organization

 

515.565(b). Self-Guided People-to-People Exchange

 

It is ONE choice: 31 CFR 515.565 (b) of the OFAC regs. for general licenses.

 

The cruise line must be choosing to make some differentiation for their own purposes/reasons.

[pbenjamin]

You are really argumentative sometimes. All I was trying to do was explain that if you did the ship-sponsored excursions you did not need to do the 5 year record retention. I've actually been on a cruise to Cuba, which is what this forum is about.

 

The affidavit instructions indicated that if you were doing person to person travel that you should check one or the other or both of the two choices below (which had checkboxes next to them). This is the text concerning Person to Person travel from the form:

 

1. P2P TRAVEL

515.565 (b). People-to-People Exchange Arranged

by a Sponsoring Organization: I am traveling as part

of an educational exchange (not a degree program)

and my travel (1) takes place under the auspices of

an organization that is a person subject to the U.S.

jurisdiction and that sponsors such exchanges to Cuba

to promote people-to-people contact; (2) the travel

is for the purpose of engaging while in Cuba in a full

time schedule (at least 8 hours a day) of activities

intended to enhance contact with the Cuban people,

support civil society, or promote the Cuban people’s

independence from Cuban authorities, resulting in

meaningful interaction with individuals in Cuba; (3)

an employee, paid consultant or agent of the sponsoring

organization is accompanying the group to

ensure that each traveler has a full time schedule of

educational exchange activities; and (4) the predominant

portion of activities to be engaged in will not be

with individuals or entities acting for or on behalf of a

prohibited member of the Government of Cuba or the

Cuban communist Party as those terms are defined in

the CACR; or

515.565(b). Self-Guided People-to-People Exchange:

I am traveling on a “self-guided” people-

to-people exchange program, and my travel (1)

is for the purpose of engaging while in Cuba in a full

time schedule (at least 8 hours a day) of activities

intended to enhance contact with the Cuban people,

support civil society, or promote the Cuban people’s

independence from Cuban authorities, resulting in

meaningful interaction with individuals in Cuba; (2)

the predominant portion of activities to be engaged

in will not be with individuals or entities acting for

or on behalf of a prohibited member of the Government

of Cuba or the Cuban communist Party as those

terms are defined in the CACR; and (3) I will maintain

records demonstrating my compliance with these requirements

for a period of no less than five (5) years.

[VidaNaPraia]

if you did the ship-sponsored excursions you did not need to do the 5 year record retention.

 

Interesting to know that applies to cruise ship passengers. I do now see a provision for this in the

31 CFR 515 (b) on the US Treasury website.

 

"...In the case of an individualtraveling under the auspices of an organization that is a person subject toU.S. jurisdiction and that sponsors such exchanges to promote people-to-peoplecontact, the individual may rely on the entity sponsoring the travel to satisfyhis or her recordkeeping obligations with respect to the requirements described.."

btw OFAC does not define a full-time schedule to be at least 8 hours a day as the cruise line affidavit does. There are probably other things the cruise line included for their own reasons that OFAC does not specify.

[cariocadagema]

Where is this cruise sailing ⛵️ from?

 

 

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[VidaNaPraia]

You are really argumentative sometimes. All I was trying to do was explain that if you did the ship-sponsored excursions you did not need to do the 5 year record retention. I've actually been on a cruise to Cuba, which is what this forum is about

 

And you are unappreciative of all the information you received previous to embarking, and ungracious.

In practice, no one "needs" to do record retention because no one's individual records have ever been looked at in decades, and there is no reason to believe they would be going forward.

I've actually been on more than one trip to Cuba, which is what is what gives me the experience to have advised you and others about conditions there that don't specifically apply to that individual cruise line's way of handling things, in answer to your posted questions.

Edited April 27, 2017 by VidaNaPraia