Havana is the Spanish consulate that receives the most complaints due to delays in nationality procedures

The Consulate General of Spain in Havana has once again been, once again, the diplomatic representation abroad that accumulates the highest number of complaints due to the delay in the resolution of nationality applications, related to the Historical Memory Law.

This has been proven by theAnnual report presented by Francisco Fernández Marugán, Acting Ombudsman, to the president of the Senate and the president of the Congress of Spain.

Each year, the Spanish Consulate in Havana resolves about 10,000 nationality applications, and in addition to this, in 2018 it required additional information on 14,000 files with which no action had been taken.

Given the volume of work, in December 2018 a procedure was initiated to hire 15 temporary assistants for one year, in order to resolve the files.

However, the average period for reviewing the documentation provided in the nationality files has not managed to fall below 2 years and 10 months.

In addition to resolving the files pending resolution, the temporary assistants had to attend to a Spanish population on the Island that already exceeds 125 thousand registered in the Registration Registry.

Added to this is that the Ombudsman has received “a considerable number” of complaints from Cuban citizens due to the difficulties and delays inthe visa procedure at the Havana consulate.

However, it recognizes that the appointment request system, launched in December 2017, “has eradicated existing fraud, thanks to the fact that its management is handled exclusively by consular staff, and to the impossibility of the applicant changing their shift. with another person, adapting the date of the appointment to the date of the trip as much as possible.”

Despite this, it is reported that, "despite the efforts made, it is not possible to respond to requests in the desirable time due to the shortage of resources at the consular office." The above leads to the conclusion that the problem in question “has not been resolved,” the report concludes.

The document also recalls that since May 2017, the Cuban authorities authorizedthe opening of a Consulate General of Spain in Santiago de Cuba, which still does not materialize.