Consulate of Spain in Havana restores its services

The Spanish consulate in Havana announced that starting next Monday, July 6, it will restore its services to the population.

In information published on its Twitter account, the office detailed and responded to responses from users about the procedures and procedures that may be carried out again, after the Cuban capital entered the first phase of the post-coronavirus recovery this Friday.

According to the publication, the procedures for:

1.- Notary (by appointment).

2.- General Registry for the presentation of documentation (from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm).

3.- Attention to voters in the elections in Galicia and Euskadi.

4.- Processing of cancellations in the Consular Registry.

5.- Legalization of documents. Only those presented by collective law firms will be processed, until further notice.

6.- Delivery of passports that appear as 'received' at the electronic address http://sutramiteconsular.maec.es

7.- Deposit requests for subsistence aid in the outdoor mailbox and vice consulates until July 17.

The consulate indicates that all scheduled appointments will continue to be suspended until, in accordance with the guidelines of the Cuban authorities, it is possible to announce the restoration of the rest of the services.

The office answered numerous questions from users on the social network, in which it clarified other aspects of interest.

In this regard, the diplomatic headquarters will notify on its Twitter account when the visa appointments that were canceled due to the health emergency will begin to be attended to, what will be the process of extending the visas that have already expired and if the appointments that are still in progress will be maintained. time to take place.

People who have a reserved audience will be notified by email.

New appointments cannot yet be made for weddings or for student visa processing.

At the beginning of last June, the Spanish consulate in Cuba reported that when public service was allowed on the island, They would give more daily appointments to resolve pending procedures.

The diplomatic corps office closed in mid-April due to the spread of the coronavirus.

"When guidelines from the Cuban government allow the resumption of service to the public, it is planned to implement a 'shock plan' to be able to provide a greater number of daily appointments in those services that, such as visas and passports, have experienced high cancellation of appointments," the account stressed. official of the entity.

In response to questions from those affected by the closure, the consulate said in April that the appointments scheduled for those days were "canceled and must be requested again when service is restored, an attempt will be made to prioritize them."

The decision caused the affected Cubans to start collecting signatures on the digital platform Change.org, aimed at getting the diplomatic office to give priority to appointments canceled due to the pandemic.

"It seems very unfair to me after all the work that goes into first acquiring the documentation and then said appointment that they take the measure of canceling them without thinking about the damage this causes to hundreds of people," wrote José Adrián Rodríguez who started the petition .