Cuba lifts rule for exit visas

October 17, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Miami Herald

MIAMI

The Cuban government’s decision to lift its deeply hated requirement of exit permits for citizens to travel abroad, while retaining other tough controls, will give perhaps millions of average Cubans a better shot at living abroad.

It also may generate an increase in the cash remittances going to the island, from the increased number of Cubans abroad, and ease some of the pressures growing under ruler Raul Castro’s decision to lay off 1 million state employees and cut subsidies on food and the health and education sectors.

But the decree published Tuesday also indicated that Cubans who have had problems obtaining exit and entry permits in the past are likely continue to do so: physicians, military and government, dissidents at home and outspoken critics abroad.

A Castro decree in Tuesday’s edition of the Gazeta Oficial said these changes will take effect Jan. 14:

Abolishes the need for the exit permit, which cost $150.

Abolishes the $200 “letter of invitation” that foreigners had to send Cubans so they could apply for passports and visas.

Extends the permission to leave Cuba from 11 to 24 months, with some renovations possible. After that, Cubans are considered to have “left definitively.”

Abolishes the entry permit for Cubans living abroad, and extend their allowed stay in Cuba per trip from one month to three months, which can be extended.