Cuba’s new immigration law will eliminate the 24-month requirement for the return of citizens

A new immigration law to be discussed by the Cuban parliament in July will eliminate a controversial clause that imposed the condition of returning to the country once every 24 months in order not to lose property rights such as housing, an official confirmed on Wednesday.

The bill, which began circulating on official websites before being presented to the legislators, sparked controversy on social media because it imposes a series of categories for those who live on and off the island.

“Immigration regulations are incorporated that respond to the challenges imposed by determining the residence of Cubans in Cuba and abroad,” said First Colonel Mario Méndez Mayedo, of the Ministry of the Interior, during a press conference. He added that “no one because they are a resident abroad loses their home, no one because they are a resident abroad loses their car, no one loses property” in relation to the provisions of the new law.

The legislation will be discussed in a context of a sharp increase in Cuban migration in the heat of the economic crisis. On the border with the United States alone, more than half a million islanders were intercepted between October 2022 and May 2024, according to reports from the authorities of that country.

Although the condition of returning to the island every 24 months in order not to lose ownership of property is eliminated, the new law establishes a series of categories such as effective residence or temporary residence for Cubans in the country and residents abroad, emigrants and investors for those who live outside the national territory.

“According to the provisions of the project, the aim is not to eliminate the differentiation between Cuban citizens implied by the declaration of ’emigrant’, but to modify it in terms that are not clear from reading the draft,” wrote lawyer Eloy Viera Cañive in the critical digital newspaper “El Toque.”

Méndez Mayedo confirmed that the rule will be taken to the sessions of the Assembly of People’s Power that will begin on July 17. If approved, a regulation should be made and implemented at the beginning of 2025.

In the 1960s, in the early years of the socialist revolution, those who moved abroad were considered disaffected emigrants and lost their homes, businesses or vehicles, which passed into the hands of the state, which handed them over to other people. Cubans were also required to have a kind of visa to travel, called a white card.

These strict regulations were relaxed over the years and in the last decade, free entry and exit of Cuban citizens was allowed, but they could lose their rights if they were to remain in the country for more than 24 months.

The two-year requirement was frozen — but not eliminated — during the COVID-19 pandemic due to people’s physical inability to travel due to closed airports and mandatory quarantines.

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