US to 'fully resume' immigrant visa processing in Cuba in 2023 to stop illegal migration

Overturning Trump's draconian Cold War-era border restrictions on Havana, the Biden administration on Tuesday maintained that effective 2023, Washington will "fully resume" immigrant visa processing at its embassy in Cuba in early 2023. Following a lengthy policy review of the Trump administration since Joe Biden assumed office as the president, the White House managed to lift some of the stringent limits on travel and remittances for the Cubans and now intends to boost visa processing in Havana to discourage illegal immigration at the Southern border.

Washington also allowed charter and commercial flights to airports outside Havana, as well as restarted the educational travel on general license but is yet to restore the “people-to-people” education travel. Biden administration will continue to uphold the human rights, fair treatment of political prisoners and labour rights in Cuba, as well as "empower the Cuban people to determine their own future," an official had earlier stated at a presser, whilst the administration implemented the policy change. 

Credit: AP

Eligible Cuban citizens to enter via legal channels

While the US witnessed a record number of Cuban citizens flee to the US-Mexico border, it decided to issue immigrant visas to enable the eligible citizens to enter via legal channels, the officials announced. When the policy will take effect, the Cubans who are generally sponsored by their US-based relatives will no longer have to travel to Guyana for interviews with US consular officers. Instead, they now interview for visas in the American embassy, in Havana.

Under the Trump administration, the Cubans were required to undergo interviews at the US embassy in Guyana after the former President halted all visa processing in Cuba to discourage the migrants from entering the US and made the visa processing more laborious. In 2020, Trump sanctioned the Western Union's partner company Fincimex citing the country's military intervention, prompting all Western Union offices to close. Trump maintained that Cubans will have to find a civilian entity that could process remittances to expand electronic payments. Biden administration, although, lifted the caps of $1,000 per quarter on family remittances since assuming office. 

US State Department which handles the consular offices announced in a statement that it will recruit and dispatch more immigration officers to Cuba in order to expedite applications for the Cuban Family Reunification Parole program [CFRP Program] which came into effect in 2007. CFRP Program allows certain eligible U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents (LPRs) to apply for parole for their family members in Cuba. If granted parole, these family members may come to the United States without waiting for their immigrant visas to become available. Once in the United States, CFRP Program beneficiaries may apply for work authorization while they wait to apply for lawful permanent resident status.

US State Department emphasized that it is willing to restore the "safe and orderly" migration from Cuba into the US. "These efforts are a key step to meet the U.S. commitment under the U.S.-Cuba Migration Accords to ensure that total legal migration to the United States from Cuba will be a minimum of 20,000 Cubans each year, not including immediate relatives of U.S. citizens," the department said in its statement.