Will Travel to Cuba and Cuban Visa Cause Problems in the USA?
Cuban Tourist Card issued by Cuban Consulate in London, UK. The cost for UK travellers is £15, the embassy is on 167 High Holborn, which is just round the corner from Tottenham Court Road. Photo: Matthew Armstrong, Flickr
This is the question I get asked often:
If I travel to Cuba and get Cuban visa with Cuban stamp in my passport, will it cause problems or prevent me from travelling to the USA?
To give a one word answer – NO!
Travelling to Cuba will in no way affect your travels to the USA nor will it cause any problems, unless you make them problems. Why? Because Cuba does not issue visa that goes in your passport, nor do they stamp passports upon entry to Cuba. Every traveller is obliged to purchase the Tourist Card. That’s your visa for Cuba. You can easily discard the tourist card after you’ve left Cuba and US immigration officials will have no indication and no reason to suspect you had previously visited Cuba.
Cuban Tourist Card aka Cuban Visa
The tourist card is a form of Cuban visa. It’s a little card that you have to fill up telling Cuban officials where in Cuba you will be staying and so on. Travellers from Canada will get the tourist card from their flight operator on board the aricraft and it is included in price of the plane ticket (Canada is Cuba’s largest source of tourism revenue). Travellers from other parts of the world may need to purchase the tourist card. Tour operators who offer travel to Cuba usually have those, or you can get them from the Cuban Embassy in your country.
USA/Cuba Relations
We all know the USA and Cuba are not on good terms together and US embargo prevents all US citizens from travelling to Cuba and/or doing business with Cuba. And Cuba responded back by removing US dollars from circulation and making it illegal to use as currency. Money exchange offices in Cuba will still accept US dollars, but will impose 10$ tax on top of an exchange rate.
US Citizen Travelling to Cuba
Despite Cuba’s sanctions against the USA and US dollars, the economy of Cuba is still powered primarily by tourism and as such, any tourist, regardless of where they are from is welcome. That includes US tourists. You will not be turned away if you are a US citizen bearing US passport and wish to enter Cuba. Cubans welcome any tourist, because tourists bring foreign funds to Cuba. And they desperately need those or else Cuban economy sinks.
Travelling to the USA after Visiting Cuba
Whether you’re a citizen of the USA or a citizen of any other country, Cuban tourist card will be your visa to Cuba, which is a separate document from your passport. US immigration need never know you have been to Cuba before hence it need not cause any problems entering the USA.
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May 27th, 2009 at 11:40 am
The US government knows every Canadian who travels
to cuba, including length of stay, where, how long etc.
every person travelling to canada via air is
required to fill out a Canada customs form.
The forms are eventually sent electronically to
the US government, where they are entered into a
data base which is connected to every port or point of entry into the US. If a Canadian travels to the usa, vian any route (car, air, etc)
that person is found on the data base and the
immigration official at the border crossing can take whatever action deemed necessary. So, Canadian citizens travelling to the USA, having
visited Cuba, beware. At best, you will be turned
back into canada, and told not to try and re-enter
the US for a period of time. The alternative is
interrogation, which is unpleasant. The Canadian government does a nice job of handing Canadian
private information over to the USA..so much for friendship.
December 10th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
I will be cruising the caribbean area early in 2010 (I am English and my friend is Dutch), and we intend to visit Cuba.
Our plan after leaving Cuba is to sail to the Florida Keys. I keep hearing different things about entry into the USA by yacht from Cuba. The latest is that WE WILL NOT BE ALLOWED ENTRY!!! Does anyone know if this is true or not?
Any information would be greatly appreciated.
August 11th, 2010 at 11:56 am
M. John Ridden.
Having been to Cuba and the United States many times I can tell you that it is total BS. The US will not interogate you or nor forbid you from entering the country if you travel to Cuba. Because in fact they don’t know you did.
Thank you.
February 26th, 2011 at 8:41 am
great help! Thank you
June 4th, 2011 at 8:22 pm
Not sure where ‘Rohn Ridden’ got his information from … Alex is right ….. ‘total BS’.
I have travelled from Toronto CANADA to Cuba many many times and continue to … as well as going across the border at Port Huron Michigan. Even when I applied for the NEXUS card on the USA side, they never knew my travels to Cuba .. until I told them in conversation. And guess what, I wasnt interrogated, locked up or anything …
November 4th, 2011 at 5:23 pm
The problems experienced by US citizens wishing to visit Cuba are created by the US Government not by Cuba. The history of US/Cuba relations are not good. From the Munroe Doctrine, to unsuccessful attempts by the US to purchase Cuba from Spain, to the US/Spanish war and the 1902 Constitution coupled with the Platt Amendment, to the military intrusions in the early 20th century, to the embargo placed by Dwight D Eisenhower on the Batista Government, to the next and still current embargo followed by the Helms-Burton Act introduced under George W. Bush, there are in addition the imposition of travel and financial restrictions placed upon the citizens of “The land of the free.” Ask not for whom the bell tolls.
November 4th, 2011 at 7:55 pm
Like what Alex says (Aug 11/2010).. total BS
Mr Ridden.
Not sure where you are getting your information from. I am Canadian. I have been and continue to travel to cuba at least 4 times a year. I also live within 1 hr of the USA border and continue to travel across there at least once a month. I have never ever been asked anything with regards to cuba by the US Border Patrol.
However .. when I applied for my NEXUS card, US Border agents asked if I had been out of the country within that past year. I stated yes and to Cuba. I was not interrogated. There was no torture to get info out of me. They just asked why I went and I told them. Safest country in the world, the people, and the beach.