A Cuban became this Wednesday the new symbol of hope for the Cuban community in the United States by sharing the moment he received his permanent residency after seven years of waiting with I-220A status.
In the video, just 25 seconds long, uploaded by a Cuban identified on TikTok as Karina (@karilove2), she arrives singing and joking with the envelope in hand to where her husband is resting on a bed.
The man greets him with a serious expression, and seconds later raises his arm with evident emotion. "After 7 years waiting for the I-220A residency," she wrote in the description of the clip.
The case of this Cuban illustrates the reality of a wait that has no end date for hundreds of thousands of Cubans. It is estimated that between 400,000 and 500,000 Cubans find themselves in a state of migratory limbo with that form in the United States, according to data cited by El País in February 2026.
The I-220A is a supervised release order issued by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), widely used with Cubans who arrived in the U.S. between 2021 and 2023. The central issue is that this form has not been uniformly recognized as parole, which is a necessary condition to access residency under the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966.
The legal saga remains open and full of contradictions. In July 2026, judges in Orlando, New Orleans, and San Antonio granted residency to some Cubans with I-220A, but the federal government immediately appealed those decisions, putting them on hold.
The approval figures reflect the magnitude of the problem. In January 2026, out of more than 7,000 applications received, only 15 were approved and four denied, representing a drop of 99.8% in approvals compared to October 2024.
Legal uncertainty is compounded by the lack of timelines. Immigration attorney Liudmila Marcelo warned in May 2026 that "USCIS has no official processing timeframe for the Cuban adjustment," leaving applicants without any clear reference for how long they will have to wait. That same attorney successfully obtained residency for a Cuban with I-220A in May 2026, in one of the few documented successful cases.
The situation is further complicated by the advancement of deportation hearings. This month, it was reported that immigration courts have moved up hearings originally scheduled for 2028 and 2029 to June and July of 2026, sometimes with insufficient notice for those affected.
In this context of uncertainty, each green card that arrives becomes a moment of collective celebration. The video of this Cuban has accumulated over 84,300 views, 3,499 likes, and 386 shares, and adds to a recurring trend in the Cuban community on social media, where other migrants have shared similar moments after waiting three, four, or even more years.
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