Lost the plot: United States requires entry visa for foreigners who have previously traveled to Cuba

[El Presidente]

 

TripAdvisor forums detail numerous instances in which Estas and entry have been denied, including a British passport-holder that was refused boarding at Paris Charles de Gaulle for a San Francisco flight in early September “due to having recently visited Cuba.”

A category B-2 tourist visa costs $160 – almost six times more expensive than an Esta and necessitating an interview at the US Embassy in London or Consulate in Belfast

Travellers applying for an Esta who have visited Cuba since 12 January 2021 will have their application denied. US Customs and Border Protection recently updated its FAQs to include advice on Cuban travel history, saying: “If a traveler is found to have visited a country designated as State Sponsor of Terrorism, the traveler is no longer eligible to participate in the Visa Wavier Program and must apply for a visa to enter the United States.”

[Arabian]

1 hour ago, El Presidente said:

 

TripAdvisor forums detail numerous instances in which Estas and entry have been denied, including a British passport-holder that was refused boarding at Paris Charles de Gaulle for a San Francisco flight in early September “due to having recently visited Cuba.”

A category B-2 tourist visa costs $160 – almost six times more expensive than an Esta and necessitating an interview at the US Embassy in London or Consulate in Belfast

Travellers applying for an Esta who have visited Cuba  since 12 January 2021 will have their application denied. US Customs and Border Protection recently updated its FAQs to include advice on Cuban travel history, saying: “If a traveler is found to have visited a country designated as State Sponsor of Terrorism, the traveler is no longer eligible to participate in the Visa Wavier Program and must apply for a visa to enter the United States.”

and good luck finding an appointment when applying. I wonder if they will do something to people with dual-citizenships?.

[rcarlson]

4 hours ago, Jeanff said:

Appreciate your being grateful, Bieber is one of US' most significant talent 

Well then.  Celine Dion stays with you.  

[...]

7 minutes ago, rcarlson said:

Well then.  Celine Dion stays with you.  

And Ted Cruz stays with you 😁

[rcarlson]

15 minutes ago, Jeanff said:

And Ted Cruz stays with you 😁

Deal. 

Any chance you'd take Harry, the deadbeat formerly known as prince?  I know he and Meghan were sort of conflicted . . .  

[...]

7 minutes ago, rcarlson said:

Deal. 

Any chance you'd take Harry, the deadbeat formerly known as prince?  I know he and Meghan were sort of conflicted . . .  

Fair is fair. I'll make the phone call...

[dgixxer252525]

Oh man this thread is another gem. Mentions of Obama’s foreign policy triumphs and references to an American insurrection. Neither of which occurred whatsoever…

[...]

11 minutes ago, dgixxer252525 said:

Oh man this thread is another gem. Mentions of Obama’s foreign policy triumphs and references to an American insurrection. Neither of which occurred whatsoever…

Just be thankful god is not here 😉

[Ken Gargett]

13 minutes ago, dgixxer252525 said:

Oh man this thread is another gem. Mentions of Obama’s foreign policy triumphs and references to an American insurrection. Neither of which occurred whatsoever…

pal, you need to actually read what is written before you sprout off with idiotic statements.

there was one single mention of obama on this thread before your post and that was by me. and what i said was "the only incumbent who made any effort was obama and that has not really proved terribly effective." 

and yet you have turned that into a comment about "Obama’s foreign policy triumphs". if you want any credibility, perhaps not concocting nonsense might help.

as for the second part of your statement, i suspect we are all better off not commenting on that, lest we stray into forbidden territory (although if you think you can get away with it, have a crack). 

 

[BellevilleMXZ]

Ok, so I take it to mean then, living in Canada, and having gone to Cuba in april, I may get the boot at the border when I try and cross?? If my passport is stamped, which I'm pretty sure it is. I wonder if they go just by stamps? of if there is a record? WTF, this isnt good, I got 4 bundles of nudies waiting just across the border. Wife and my passport may get damaged and replaced

 

[Chas.Alpha]

2 hours ago, BellevilleMXZ said:

Crap, stupid browser, I dont see a delete option?

Hell, I just thought you were on a roll!!!

2 hours ago, BellevilleMXZ said:

Ok, so I take it to mean then, living in Canada, and having gone to Cuba in april, I may get the boot at the border when I try and cross?? If my passport is stamped, which I'm pretty sure it is. I wonder if they go just by stamps? of if there is a record? WTF, this isnt good, I got 4 bundles of nudies waiting just across the border. Wife and my passport may get damaged and replaced

I think you could blame Debbie's cat. Many photos of that rodent's destruction...

4 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

as for the second part of your statement, i suspect we are all better off not commenting on that, lest we stray into forbidden territory (although if you think you can get away with it, have a crack).

I am merely one click away from a two week suspension...

4 hours ago, dgixxer252525 said:

 references to an American insurrection. Neither of which occurred whatsoever…

Only the entire planet watched the security camera footage... An embarrassment to this country for a generation.

[...]

1 hour ago, BellevilleMXZ said:

Ok, so I take it to mean then, living in Canada, and having gone to Cuba in april, I may get the boot at the border when I try and cross?? If my passport is stamped, which I'm pretty sure it is. I wonder if they go just by stamps? of if there is a record? WTF, this isnt good, I got 4 bundles of nudies waiting just across the border. Wife and my passport may get damaged and replaced

 

You skipped the relevant info within this thread; Canada is not a country included in the list requiring ESTA visas so it's not an issue for you or your wife 😉     

[rckymtn22]

3 hours ago, rcarlson said:

Deal. 

Any chance you'd take Harry, the deadbeat formerly known as prince?  I know he and Meghan were sort of conflicted . . .  

We already had them, they were living on Vancouver Island for a bit. Guess the life was too pedestrian for them there.

[Chas.Alpha]

3 minutes ago, rckymtn22 said:

We already had them, they were living on Vancouver Island for a bit. Guess the life still was too pedestrian for them.

Ok, there is a butcher shop in Winnipeg, I can't remember the name but I can drive there from Minneapolis, Mn. Best sausages on the planet!!! I'll trade that shop for Ted Cruz, Justin Bieber and the No-longer Royal family members. I will also add #100 of Minnesota wild rice to the offer...

[NSXCIGAR]

14 hours ago, therealrsr said:

Trump added Cuba to the list 8 days before leaving office. 

I know they're on the list but not for being actual state sponsors of terror. Turns out they just "don't cooperate fully" with US efforts. 

As far as 8 days before leaving I suppose he could have done it on day one. And the Biden administration doesn't appear interested in removing it. 

Not much difference between the two administrations but Trump was expected to be hostile to Cuba. Biden was not. 

 

13 hours ago, BrooksW said:

When asked, both of them indicated they do not stamp the official passport for Americans...

I forgot to tell them not to stamp my passport in April and they did. On occasion I've been asked if I wanted it stamped so I don't think it's their policy to not stamp them by default. 

[Chibearsv]

10 hours ago, Chas.Alpha said:

Ok, there is a butcher shop in Winnipeg, I can't remember the name but I can drive there from Minneapolis, Mn. Best sausages on the planet!!! I'll trade that shop for Ted Cruz, Justin Bieber and the No-longer Royal family members. I will also add #100 of Minnesota wild rice to the offer...

I'm betting you'd throw in Kirk Cousins as well.😁

 

7 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I forgot to tell them not to stamp my passport in April and they did. On occasion I've been asked if I wanted it stamped so I don't think it's their policy to not stamp them by default.

Setting aside my opinion of the policy, please tell me our port security isn't relying on a paper book with rubber stamps alone.  There must be some electronic record of travel that's associated with our passports.  I've never seen the agents leafing through the stamps section in my passport to determine where I've been previously...but I don't travel internationally more than once a year.  I find it hard to comprehend that simply replacing your passport book clears your travel record.  

[Bijan]

4 hours ago, Chibearsv said:

There must be some electronic record of travel that's associated with our passports. 

There may be, but if he has a Canadian passport is the Canadian government going to officially share travel info for every Canadian citizen with the US government and vice versa?

So maybe if you do something very fishy you'll set off a red flag and be on some sort of list, but they can't just stop any random Canadian or Frenchman or whatever and say we know you've been to Cuba, without exposing some troublesome data sharing.

[Chibearsv]

2 hours ago, Bijan said:

There may be, but if he has a Canadian passport is the Canadian government going to officially share travel info for every Canadian citizen with the US government and vice versa?

So maybe if you do something very fishy you'll set off a red flag and be on some sort of list, but they can't just stop any random Canadian or Frenchman or whatever and say we know you've been to Cuba, without exposing some troublesome data sharing.

Yeah, I get it.  It's just weird to me that the solution to cleaning your travel record is as easy as a replacement passport.  My assumption, naïve as it may be, was that countries are sharing their travel data electronically with each other, otherwise entry or not is just riding on a paper book and a rubber stamp.  Seems antiquated and idiotic to me as do must bureaucratic processes.  

[NSXCIGAR]

3 hours ago, therealrsr said:

I don't disagree with any of that.  To your point the state sponsor of terrorism designation was at least partially linked to the support of Maduro, but Venezuela isn't on the list?

It is curious. According to this Venezuela has been certified by the State Dept. but for some reason have not been formally added to the list.

https://www.lawfareblog.com/using-terrorism-list-squeeze-cuba-and-venezuela

On May 13 [2020], the U.S. Department of State issued a press release explaining it had certified to Congress that five countries—Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Syria and North Korea—were “not cooperating fully” with U.S. anti-terrorism efforts pursuant to Section 40(a) of the Arms Export Control Act.

And it appears that Trump was very close to doing so in 2018:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/trump-administration-prepares-to-add-venezuela-to-list-of-state-sponsors-of-terrorism/2018/11/19/1ba65b74-ec01-11e8-baac-2a674e91502b_story.html

The Trump administration is preparing to add Venezuela to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism in what would be a dramatic escalation against the socialist government of Nicolás Maduro, according to U.S. officials and internal government emails.

And here we have Colombia pushing the US hard to add them to the list last year:

 https://ticotimes.net/2021/07/27/colombia-asks-us-to-list-venezuela-as-terror-sponsor

Colombia urged the United States on Monday to declare neighbor Venezuela a state sponsor of terrorism for allegedly shielding dissident fighters thought to be behind an attack on President Ivan Duque’s helicopter last month.

 

[MrBirdman]

22 hours ago, dgixxer252525 said:

Oh man this thread is another gem. Mentions of Obama’s foreign policy triumphs and references to an American insurrection. Neither of which occurred whatsoever…

I don’t know what has given you the impression this forum welcomes hare-brained trolling…but it doesn’t. In fact that’s why many of us enjoy coming here. 

So take it elsewhere. 

[Ken Gargett]

36 minutes ago, MrBirdman said:

I don’t know what has given you the impression this forum welcomes hare-brained trolling…but it doesn’t. In fact that’s why many of us enjoy coming here. 

So take it elsewhere. 

you think this is idiocy (and you'd be right)? you should see the rubbish that the mods reject. 

[helix]

Few places to get away from idiocy anywhere ! Thanks you mods and FOH.

[Chas.Alpha]

1 hour ago, Ken Gargett said:

you think this is idiocy (and you'd be right)? you should see the rubbish that the mods reject. 

You good folks only get to see HALF of my posts! 😀

[Chas.Alpha]

13 hours ago, Chibearsv said:

I'm betting you'd throw in Kirk Cousins as well.😁

 

Setting aside my opinion of the policy, please tell me our port security isn't relying on a paper book with rubber stamps alone.

Sending Kirk Cousins to Canada would be against the Geneva Convention, at least as I read it. I have three stamps in my passport from Jose Marti/HAV

[ha_banos]

Just seen a headline this Cuba visit thing goes back to 11 years? Whoah.

 

The Independent: Travellers who have visited Cuba in last 11 years will need visa to enter US.

https://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/cuba-tourism-visa-us-trump-b2173792.html