President Obama has made good on promises to work on making travel to Cuba easier. Here is a summary of the state of things right now.
- U.S. citizens can send money to Cuban citizens, as long as the Cuban is not a member of the Communist party. The limit is $500 per quarter, or $2000 per year.
- We can all travel to Cuba now, as long as it’s as part of a group going under auspices of religious, cultural, or educational guise, and is a licensed tour group.
- US airports can apply to serve Cuba-bound charter flights, as long as it has immigration facilities and customs facilities that are adequate.
With these new guidelines, President Obama is hoping to reach out the the Cuban people to support their freedom. Back in May 2011, Obama said he needs to see some real change from the Cuban government before we can work on normal relations and travel to Cuba. This was a bit of a setback after so much optimism when Obama first took office and eased travel and remittance rules between USA and Cuba.
The Freedom to Travel Act is under consideration on Capitol Hill right now. That’s big news for anyone following the USA to Cuba events, or anyone who wants to travel to Cuba. There are already 180 people in Congress who are willing to cosponsor the bill, and a similar bill in the Senate has thirty-two Senators endorsing that bill. Is it too early to start packing your bags for travel to Cuba?
The House Foreign Relations Committee is considering the bill now, which is just the first step in the legislative process. This committee has to approve the bill in order for the process to continue into an actual piece of legislation. There are thousands of signatures from the public, supporting Freedom to Travel to Cuba, including many online signatures from Orbitz.com.
The grassroots movement supporting Cuba travel is strong. In fact, polls taken in September 2009 indicate that even Cuban-Americans are in support of opening up travel to Cuba. 59 % of Cuban-Americans were in favor of lifting the ban for all Americans. The tide has certainly begun to change in the public, and even on Capitol Hill, we hope!
