The new Cuban immigration and citizenship legislation, published in the Official Gazette on May 5 after nearly two years of delay, changes little fundamentally for Cuban Americans: it maintains the requirement to travel and identify oneself with a Cuban passport within the national territory and preserves the broad discretion of the regime to deny entry or exit to critics and opponents.
The Migration Laws (171/2024), Citizenship (172/2024), and Foreigners (173/2024) were approved by the National Assembly on July 19, 2024, but the regime did not publish them until May 5, with no explanation provided for the delay.
They will come into effect 180 days after their publication, which means approximately in November 2026.
The most controversial restriction remains unchanged.
The citizenship law is explicit: "Cuban citizens, while they are in the national territory, are governed by this status in the terms established in this Law and cannot make use of foreign citizenship."
This means that U.S. citizens born in Cuba will continue to be treated as Cubans while they are on the island, with no possibility of claiming consular protection from the U.S. Embassy in Havana, as the Department of State warns in its travel recommendations.
The law also establishes that those born in Cuba and who hold another citizenship "do not enjoy, within the national territory, any privileges, benefits, or protections related to such citizenships."
The only way for a Cuban American to enter Cuba solely with a U.S. passport is to have completed the legal process of renouncing Cuban citizenship, as regulated for the first time in the new law, although this procedure will not be available until November 2026.
Among the changes that the legislation does introduce is the removal of the 24-month limit on staying abroad, which automatically classified Cubans as "permanent emigrants," resulting in the loss of rights over properties in the island.
The concept of "Effective Migratory Residence" is also introduced, which recognizes as residents those who remain in Cuba for more than 180 accumulated days in a year or who demonstrate family, work, economic, or property ties.
The law also establishes a special immigration status of "Investors and Businesses" for émigrés who wish to participate in the Cuban economy, with a processing fee of 3,500 Cuban pesos and a resolution period of 30 business days, following the announcement by the Minister of Foreign Investment, Óscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, that Cubans abroad could own private businesses on the island.
However, the new legislation also expands state control over the movements of individuals, establishing ten grounds to prevent leaving the country, including reasons of national security, preservation of "qualified labor force," or "sensitive official information," without the need for a criminal cause.
The law also codifies the practice of denying entry to activists and critics of the government on grounds of "national security" or "public order," applicable to both foreigners and Cuban citizens.
The Migration Police is formally established as a specialized law enforcement body with jurisdiction across the entire national territory, empowered to request identification documents from any individual anywhere in the country, not just at borders.
The distrust of the diaspora—estimated at more than two million people—towards these openings has been a constant, given the regime's history of non-compliance and the context of the worst economic crisis since 1959, with a projected GDP decline of 6.5% in 2026 and over 600,000 Cubans who have left the island since 2022.
The lawyer Laritza Diversent from Cubalex clearly summarized the risk: "The regime has used criminal law to seize valuable properties: they invite investment, then they imprison entrepreneurs and expropriate their businesses."
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