The illusion of returning to Cuba after more than two decades turned into a bitter experience for Mercedes de la Rosa, a 73-year-old Cuban resident of Palm Bay, Florida.
The woman paid nearly 300 dollars to process her Cuban passport through an agency in the southern part of the state, but after more than a year of waiting, the document never arrived.
“They guaranteed me that the passport would be back within six months to a year”, recounted the elderly woman, who hired the service in July 2024 in hopes of reuniting with her homeland.
The affected individual paid 292 dollars for the procedure.
As he explained, he decided to go to an agency to avoid complications and expedite the process. During the first six months, he waited patiently. When the initial period came to an end, he began to call for information. Then, a whole year passed.
“It was always the same: ‘it's in progress.’ I never got a concrete answer,” he explained.
Questions about your citizenship
Amid the long wait, Mercedes claims she received an unexpected explanation. According to her testimony, she was informed that there were problems with her Cuban nationality.
"They told me that I didn’t appear to be Cuban. So I asked: Can I go to Cuba with my American passport? And they told me no. So, what nationality am I?" she questioned, visibly confused by the response.
In September 2024 —according to her account— the company informed her that the passport had been approved and would arrive in about a month. She decided to wait an additional two months, but the document never showed up.
"Give me back my money."
After more than a year without concrete results, Mercedes made a decision: to cancel the process and demand a refund of her money.
"I already said: give me back my money. I am not going to get the passport after more than a year," she asserted.
According to his account, he was initially offered a partial refund of around 150 dollars, an offer he rejected as he deemed it unfair.
In light of the lack of a solution, he filed a complaint with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), the agency that oversees, among other things, business practices in the state.
The agency responded to the authorities, claiming that the delay was due to the applicant submitting a very old birth certificate. Mercedes denies that this was the issue.
"Here is my certification. I am 73 years old, so of course it might be a little old, but it is readable and has the stamp of the agency that received it," he stated.
Intervention and reimbursement
The case reached the investigative segment "Responde" of Telemundo 31, which contacted the company via email.
In its response, the company indicated that the processes handled with birth certificates can generally take about a year, that the client's positive identification was completed in September 2025, and that the passport was in the issuance stage.
She also indicated that she was willing to reimburse the full service fee and return the passport to the Cuban authorities for cancellation.
Finally, after the intervention of the media, Mercedes confirmed that she received a full refund of 292 dollars.
“They gave me the money when Telemundo got involved in the case”, he stated.
Although she was unable to obtain the passport that would allow her to return to Cuba, the woman claims to feel relieved for having recovered her money. She is now planning to look for another agency that can provide her with greater clarity and guarantees regarding the processing times.
The case highlights the difficulties many Cubans abroad face when managing documents with the authorities of the island, processes that are often lengthy, costly, and lacking in transparency.
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