LatinaLista — There’s a new license being issued by the Treasure Department that targets Cuban Americans. However, it’s one license that’s bound to prove popular among those who still have family members back on the island.
Map of Cuba
For too long, travel has been made extremely difficult between Cuba and the United States. What that has meant for the millions of Cuban Americans who still have family back home is going for as long as three years without abrazos y besos (hugs and kisses) from their loved ones — and only then of immediate family members.
It no longer is the case now.
The new license makes significant changes from the restrictions the Bush Administration imposed in 2004 regarding visiting family members in Cuba.
The new rules allow:
• A trip every 12 months with a general license that does not require an application process.
• Passengers wanting to travel again within the same year can apply for ”specific licenses.” Approval will be given case by case.
• A broader definition of who qualifies as family and can be visited.
• A per diem spending of $179.
The application for the new license will be available (staffers are busily updating the website to reflect the new rules) for download on the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control website.
Hopefully, it won’t be too long before everyone who has an interest in visiting Cuba will be allowed to go — politics notwithstanding.
