If that is the question, you can apply for ESTA without any issue - you will be truthfully answering questions. If your ESTA request is rejected, you can then apply for a visa (and here mention you were in Cuba before the date).
"The U.S. Department of State designated Cuba as a State Sponsor of Terrorism (SST) on January 12, 2021.With limited exceptions, a traveler who is found to have visited Cuba on or after this date is not eligible for travel under the Visa Waiver Program (VWP) using an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) and must apply for a visa to travel to the United States."
This whole thing seems bizarre. We did a birding trip to Cuba some years ago so that aspect isn’t a concern,personally. However, thousands go on package holidays from the UK to Cuba every year , so are we saying that all those people are then barred from the US unless they apply in person for visas ( ie can’t just use the simple online esta application ) ? If this is true, why aren’t the travel agents emphasising this to anyone booking a Cuba holiday ?
A good question. Neither the fco website nor tui mention it.
That would exactly be the case - ESTA application asks if you have been to the listed restricted countries. You can either lie (which is not a very good idea on an official immigration document) or you will not be eligible for ESTA and will need a visa.
That may well be so, but I believe the requirement to answer on the ESTA application whether you have visited Cuba since 2021 is a new one. Given the long reach of US authorities and the ease of data sharing, I think it's a non-trivial risk to lie about this.
It could be new, but over the years I've been asked similar questions the subject of which is absolutely none of the US authorities' business, e.g. "have you worked with the Cuban government?". I'm afraid that if I'd played the US's silly game I would never have been able to get any conservation work done. You may know that many international conservation NGOs work in Cuba—and let's just say that they have to be creative to do so. Bear in mind that it is (was?) also illegal for a UK or EU citizen to comply with Helms-Burton, so this is already a Catch-22—which, of course, is just what the people who come up with this stuff want.
Exactly, the ESTA application specifically asks if you have visited Cuba and the other restricted countries back to certain dates. If they catch you knowingly lying on the ESTA application, you will be banned entry into the US period.
My reluctance isn't an ethical one - I agree that it's an obnoxious rule, and good luck to anybody who wants to take the risk - it's purely a matter of the risk of being caught, and the consequences. Who knows which airlines are sharing passenger data with the US government, knowingly or not.
I might well try to get a 10 year US visa. There's a couple of countries on their naughty step I'd like to visit.
As a result of multiple Iran visits, I needed to get a visa. Was no problem at all, only comments by the guy at the US embassy about my Iran visits were along the lines of 'holiday in Iran, cool', 'I bet the food was good ', and then the conversation veered off to hornbills that the guy had seen on a golf course in Thailand or somewhere nearby 👍
I agree: everyone must take their own decision and it needs to be pragmatic. To put this new question into context, US immigration has long required that you declare visits to Cuba anyway (along with cigars, rum, etc). Hundreds of thousands of people, most of them US citizens, have been flying through Mexico or Canada to Havana over the past few years, answering this very question posed to them by border agents on return to the USA (and typically carrying a bottle of rum). I have had US diplomats, government workers, university colleagues etc all have to do this.
Thanks Jos—a classic protection payment, I suppose, and illustration of the utterly arbitrary nature of US sanctions. Sad to see their policy going backwards again after a brief period of hope.
