A 21-year-old Cuban woman living in Madrid shared on Instagram the moment she discovered that she needed to submit a police record from Cuba to proceed with her application to work on a cruise, despite having a Spanish passport and legally residing in Spain.
The video, posted on Monday by the account @naty_en_madrid, shows the selection interview that the young woman conducted while she was in Dublin. In the clip, the interviewer explains that the company requires criminal background certificates from all the countries where the candidate has lived for more than a year over the past seven years.
For her, that means obtaining not only the Spanish certificate but also the Cuban one, a process that the interviewer himself acknowledged could bring complications: “There might be some delays, I don’t know, we’ll see.”
The young woman lived in Cuba for 20 years before emigrating to Spain. Although she travels with a Spanish passport, her long residency on the Island requires her to manage documentation from a country whose bureaucracy is notoriously slow and costly for those who no longer live there.
Obtaining the Cuban criminal record certificate for use abroad requires processing it through the ONBC/Conabi with a note for external use, and then legalizing it with the Ministry of Justice of Cuba. Additionally, Cuba is not a part of the Hague Convention on Apostille, which adds extra steps that are not required for most countries.
Resolution 609 of 2023 establishes a validity period of one year for that document, although many international employers require it to be less than six months old, which necessitates frequently repeating the process.
This type of requirement is not exclusive to the company that interviewed the young woman. Shipping companies like Royal Caribbean also require background checks from the countries where the candidate has lived, worked, or held citizenship, depending on the position they are applying for.
At the end of the interview, the recruiter informed her that if her application progressed, she would receive two emails the following Tuesday. She was ultimately notified that her process would not continue.
The case is not isolated. Many Cubans in the diaspora who have managed to regularize their situation in Europe or other countries continue to face administrative obstacles when international employment processes require documentation from Cuba due to their residency in the country.
The young woman accompanied the video with a reflection that resonated with her followers: "I love being Cuban but I can't help but suffer the consequences of it. There are still many barriers, prejudices, and legal restrictions. In the end, emigrants have to play with the weaker card, but the truth is that this doesn't stop us."
It is not the first time a Cuban woman recounts a bad experience trying to work on a cruise: the topic has accumulated testimonies on social media that reflect the challenges emigrants may face who, despite having built a life outside the Island, still have to manage documentation from their country of origin.
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