The new Cuban immigration and citizenship legislation, published in the Official Gazette on May 5 after nearly two years of delay, changes little in essence 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 (171/2024), Citizenship (172/2024), and Foreign Affairs (173/2024) laws were approved by the National Assembly on July 19, 2024, but the regime did not publish them until May 5, without any explanation for the delay.
They will come into effect 180 days after their publication, that is, around November 2026.
The most controversial restriction remains intact.
The citizenship law is explicit: "Cuban citizens, while they are in the national territory, are governed by this status under 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 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 who hold another citizenship "do not enjoy, within the national territory, the privileges, benefits, or protections related to such citizenships."
The only way for a Cuban American to enter Cuba with only a U.S. passport is to have completed the legal process of renouncing Cuban citizenship, which is regulated for the first time in the new law, although this procedure will not be available until November 2026.
Among the changes introduced by the legislation 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 property on the island.
The concept of "Effective Migratory Residency" is also introduced, recognizing as residents those who stay more than 180 accumulated days in a year in Cuba or demonstrate family, labor, 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 movement of people, establishing ten reasons to prevent individuals from leaving the country, including national security, the preservation of a "qualified workforce," or "sensitive official information," without the need for a criminal cause.
The law also codifies the practice of denying entry to activists and government critics under the pretexts of "national security" or "public order," applicable to both foreigners and Cuban citizens.
The Migration Police is formalized as a specialized police force with jurisdiction across the entire national territory, empowered to request identification documents from any individual in any location within the country, not just at borders.
The distrust of the diaspora —estimated at over two million people— towards these openings has been a constant, given the regime's history of noncompliance and the context of the worst economic crisis since 1959, with a projected GDP decline of 6.5% in 2026 and more than 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 confiscate valuable properties: they invite investment, then imprison entrepreneurs and expropriate their businesses."
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