The United States Embassy in Cuba will resume the processing of all immigrant visas on January 4, the State Department reported this Wednesday in Twitter.
The announcement was made after a meeting between the Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs, Rena Bitter, and the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Ur Mendoza Jaddou, with the Cuban Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío. .
The State Department reported that the meeting was aimed at “discussing the expansion of consular operations in Cuba.” “We are pleased to announce that the United States Embassy in Cuba will resume full processing of immigrant visas on January 4, 2023,” he said on the social network.
Regarding the meeting between the representatives of both governments, the Island’s Foreign Ministry reported that Fernández de Cossío reiterated to the US authorities “the importance of fully resuming immigration and consular services at the US embassy in Havana.”
The Cuban deputy minister also confirmed “the willingness to contribute with the necessary steps for the full functioning of the migratory and consular services of the diplomatic headquarters,” says a statement about the meeting.
Bitter and Mendoza traveled to the Island to address the full restoration of immigration visa processing in early 2023 and the recent resumption of the Parole Family Reunification Program at the US Embassy,” the State Department said in announcing the visit.
This meeting takes place in the midst of a massive exodus of Cubans, mainly to the United States.
The growing flow of Cubans already marked the bilateral dialogue on migration last April in Washington, another mechanism reactivated by the Biden Administration
In the past fiscal year (October 2021-September 2022), the record number of irregular migrants in general -and Cubans in particular- arrived at the southern border of the United States was registered. Migration has become a key issue in US national policy .
Cuban migrants totaled 224,607 in that period, according to the Department of Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
In addition, the US Coast Guard has detained more than 6,182 Cubans on the Florida coast since October 1, 2021.
In that period, the US government issued 23,966 visas to Cubans and for the first time since 2017 complied with the 1994 bilateral migration agreement, which stipulates the delivery of a minimum of 20,000 visas per year to citizens of the island.
The Cuban government blames Washington for the irregular migration of Cuban citizens. Both for not complying with the bilateral agreement and for the validity of the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, which allows Cubans to apply for permanent residence in the United States after one year and one day of remaining in that country.
The growing flow of Cubans already marked the bilateral dialogue on migration last April in Washington, another mechanism reactivated by the Biden Administration and that Donald Trump had suspended in 2018.
The US government has taken several measures in recent months to advance the normalization of the migration issue, such as the gradual increase in its consular services on the island and the reestablishment of a family reunification program, suspended since 2017.
Cuba is going through a serious economic crisis that has led to a severe shortage of basic products, daily blackouts, an inflationary spiral and growing dollarization, which has led many Cubans to leave the country.
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