The administrative advisor Mario Dueñas, an expert in requests for Spanish nationality through the Democratic Memory Law (LMD), known as the Grandchildren's Law, warns those who are obtaining citizenship in Cuba not to travel to Spain without the certificate needed to obtain the Spanish identity card because without the DNI, they cannot regularize their own situation or that of their family members, nor can they work.
Currently, as he explained in statements to CiberCuba, there are thousands of Cubans in Spain waiting more than eight months for that certificate, and it has happened that upon arriving in Spain, their family members, during the wait, have their documents brought from Cuba legalized for processing their residency expire.
"We receive calls every day from countless people asking us for their certification to obtain a national ID. No, it’s not ready, but I requested it from the Central Registry four months ago and still haven't received a response. It's been five months with no reply. I have no way of obtaining the certification because the response I sometimes get from the Central Registry after those five months is that they don't have it because it's not digitized. There's no way to get it. Whenever someone calls us from Cuba and says, 'I'm going to Spain for the first time,' the first piece of advice we give is that if they don't have the certification for the national ID, they shouldn't come, because they'll face the reality of being a tourist in Spain."
"In Spain today, there must be more than 10,000 Cubans who arrived with their passports but do not have their certification to obtain their ID for the first time. Why? What does a Spaniard without an ID do in Spain? They are a tourist. I know people who have been here for more than six months, seven months, eight months, and they still have not managed to obtain the certification for the ID. Without that, they can't do anything; they can’t register for anything, not as job seekers, nor for their health card, nothing at all. Everything becomes complicated for them," noted Dueñas.
According to the explanation given, this is happening because "in theory, to request a certification for the DNI today, you need to make an appointment at the consulate, which only opens for appointments once a month. It's nearly impossible to get one of those appointments. They send you the confirmation via email, but we don’t know how many appointments are being allocated for DNI certifications. No one knows, but the number is very, very limited. That certification should be in the Central Registry in Madrid, but the Central Registry in Madrid also does not have those DNI certifications, as they say the consulate has not updated it. If you can't get a DNI, you can't regularize your status in Spain. It's not just about you; all your family members depend on you having a DNI to process their residency permits."
Mario Dueñas also warned about the difficulty of legalizing Cuban senior citizens in Spain. He stated that it is almost an impossible mission because the new regulations of the Immigration Law, which came into effect on May 20, favor the immigration of younger individuals and seniors over 80 years old. Those under that age must prove that they depend on their child living in Spain, and in that case, they must demonstrate that they do not receive a pension in Cuba, that they live alone, and that they are financially dependent on that emigrant child, who must send them 300 euros a month to certify this dependence.
And if, on the contrary, that older adult arrives in Spain already retired and is not 67 years old, which is the retirement age for Spaniards, they have arrived at working age and must find a job. If they enter with a letter of invitation, Dueñas warns that the regularization through roots is very, very difficult because they need to study or work to obtain it, regardless of whether they are 70 years old.
In this Thursday's program on CiberCuba, Mario Dueñas also clarified the statement published this Wednesday by the Spanish Consulate in Havana, which reiterates that the credentials issued by the previous system are being gradually phased out, and that those who received them after April 2025 and have not yet booked their appointment still have time to do so.
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