() — The US Embassy will resume full processing of immigrant visas beginning Jan. 4, 2023, Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Rena Bitter said after concluding a visit to Havana this week.
In a press release posted on Twitter Thursday, Bitter and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Ur Mendoza Jaddou discussed the resumption of full immigrant visa processing, as well as the resumption of processing of parole for Cuban family reunification.
Bitter also expressed concern to Cuban officials about the human rights situation in the country and urged the Cuban government to release all political prisoners.
On Monday, the State Department announced that Bitter would travel to Havana this week “to discuss the full resumption of immigrant visa processing in early 2023 and the recent resumption of parole processing for Cuban family reunification at the Embassy.” of the United States of Havana with officials of the host government”.
According to a statement from the Cuban Foreign Ministry, in the meeting with US officials, Deputy Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossio, the island’s top diplomat for US affairs, “reiterated the importance of restoring all consular and visa services.”
Services were suspended in 2017 after US diplomats suffered a series of unexplained health incidents that became known as “Havana Syndrome.”
Cuban officials denied that there were any targeted attacks against US personnel, but as a result of the incidents, Cubans were forced to apply for visas at US embassies in third countries, which many said was too costly and lengthy a process.
Although limited visa services were renewed at the embassy in 2022, there was an exodus of Cubans leaving the island this year, traveling by land through Central America and Mexico to the US, or by boat, through the Straits of Florida.
According to US government statistics, more than 200,000 Cubans crossed the border from Mexico into the US in 2022 and thousands have tried to reach the US by boat amid a worsening economic situation in the US. the island ruled by communists.