The US Embassy in Cuba said Wednesday it will resume “full processing of immigrant visas” next year for the first time since 2017, when the mission was shut down over alleged sonic attacks on diplomatic personnel.
The announcement came as Cuba saw an unprecedented exodus of undocumented migrants amid the communist country’s worst economic crisis in 30 years due to tightening US sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic.
“This change will … eliminate the need for Cubans to apply for immigrant visas in family preference categories to travel to Georgetown, Guyana for their interviews outside of Cuba,” the embassy said in a statement.
The United States evacuated its diplomatic staff and families in 2017 after at least two dozen people suffered brain injuries that resembled a concussion but with no outward signs of trauma.
US officials accused Cuba of conducting “health attacks” using some sort of acoustic or microwave device, a charge Havana angrily denied.
A 2020 U.S. government report said the illnesses suffered by employees and their families were most likely caused by “directional, pulsed radiofrequency energy.”
The closure of the embassy made obtaining a visa an expensive nightmare for Cubans, who now had to travel to a third country at their own expense to apply.
Many have tried to get to the US shores without visas, many are trying their luck without travel documents on long, dangerous voyages by sea or by road across Central America.
According to the US Border Patrol, a record 198,000 Cubans have entered the United States illegally in the past 11 months.
The US embassy resumed limited visa services in Havana in May, but announced a “full resumption” from early 2023, made possible by an increase in embassy staff.
According to existing immigration treaties, the United States should grant Cubans at least 20,000 immigrant visas per year.
However, those agreements were suspended in 2018 by former President Donald Trump, whose government also refused to meet with the Cuban government.
Annual migration talks between Havana and Washington resumed earlier this year.
