SLP, Mexico.- The Cuban regime reported this Friday that as of April 1, 2025, Cubans will need a passport valid to enter the country, as revealed in an official note published by the Cuban Foreign Ministry.
The provision eliminates the exceptional measure in force since 2020 that allowed entry to the Island with an expired document.
The general director of Consular Affairs and Attention to Cubans Living Abroad, Ana Teresita González, told the official newspaper Granma that the deadline to enter with an expired passport is March 31, 2025.
The official text, published on the website of the Cuban Foreign Ministry, indicates that the exception was implemented on a temporary basis, with the aim to “protect our fellow citizens in the midst of the pandemic.”
However, taking into account “the time that has passed, the normalization of international flights, and the operation of our consular offices,” they decided to establish March 31, 2025 as the deadline for entry into the country of Cuban citizens with expired passports. as stated in the note.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Cubans residing outside the country were required to enter Cuba for a period of no more than two years.
As of March 2020, Cubans had been able to enter Cuba without needing a valid passport. The measure was extended in 2022, establishing that entry to Cuba would continue to be allowed for nationals residing in other countries whose passport had expired or had not been extended.
With this, people in this situation did not lose their status as native Cuban citizens.
In October In 2020, the Cuban authorities announced that nationals who were abroad, and who had not been able to return to the country due to the global border closure, could remain outside Cuba until October 12, 2021 without losing their status. residents.
Later, in September 2021, the MINREX of Cuba reported: “Given the persistence of the complex epidemiological situation in Cuba and internationally due to SARS CoV 2/Covid-19, the measures adopted since March 2020 for the care of citizens remain in force. Cubans abroad during the pandemic, with the aim of protecting our compatriots who request services from possible contagion and increasing the quality of consular care.
