VisaCuban immigrant-visa applicants can attend interviews while separate US restrictions remain
The end of the seventy-five-country issuance pause did not itself remove the proclamation restrictions affecting Cuban applicants. Check the legal basis before paying.
Official announcement date: not established (undated guidance)
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Edited and checked by the VisaWand editorial team
An interview invitation does not settle eligibility for issuance
Cuban nationals preparing for a US immigrant-visa interview should distinguish permission to submit a case from eligibility to receive a visa. The State Department’s proclamation guidance says affected applicants may apply and schedule interviews even where issuance or admission remains restricted. This guide concerns existing restrictions.
The department lists Cuba under a partial suspension covering all immigrant visas and the specified visitor, student and exchange-visitor nonimmigrant categories. It also says the former automatic exceptions for immediate-family immigrant visas are no longer available under the proclamation. A petition from an American spouse or parent therefore does not, by that fact alone, establish an exception. Ask which rule or exception applies to the individual case rather than treating an interview slot as that determination.
The separate seventy-five-country pause has ended
The department’s public-benefits processing update expressly says the January 2026 immigrant-visa issuance pause for nationals of 75 countries ceased to be in effect on 21 August 2026 following a court order. Cuba appears in the historical country list retained farther down the same page. Reading that list without the opening update would give a misleading account of the current position.
That update concerns a particular issuance pause. It does not state that Presidential Proclamation 10998 was withdrawn. The department’s separate proclamation page and the proclamation itself must therefore be checked independently. For an illustrative Cuban family applicant, the end of one restriction does not establish that another restriction no longer applies. The public-benefits page’s retained questions about the former pause should be read in light of its explicit opening statement that the pause ended.
Check the proclamation’s scope and specific exceptions
The proclamation’s scope provision applies to designated foreign nationals who were outside the United States on its applicable effective date and lacked a valid visa on that date. Its effective date is 1 January 2026. Establish the person’s location and visa status at that point rather than assuming nationality alone answers every question. An expired visa today does not establish whether a valid visa was held on that earlier date.
The text lists exceptions including lawful permanent residents and dual nationals travelling on a passport from a country outside the designated restrictions. Other categories cover specified official visas, certain major sporting-event participants and designated US-government-employee special immigrants. Case-specific national-interest exceptions are discretionary. An applicant should identify the exact documentary basis for a claimed exception; possessing a second nationality is not the same as travelling on the qualifying passport. No individual exception or eligibility determination has been obtained for this guide.
Follow Havana’s actual appointment checklist if instructed to proceed
The Havana immigrant-visa instructions require original civil documents and a printed checklist, an interview letter where applicable, the DS-260 confirmation, passport and two photographs. Family cases also need the relevant financial-sponsor material and relationship evidence. Documents outside English or Spanish need certified English translations. Arrange the approved medical examination after receiving the interview date; the page says to complete it before the interview and rejects examinations from unauthorised hospitals.
The same guidance warns that approval is not guaranteed and advises against selling property, resigning from work or making non-refundable travel arrangements before receiving the visa. It also says unpaid required National Visa Center charges must be paid at the interview. These are practical preparation instructions for a case being processed, not a promise that completing the checklist overcomes a proclamation restriction. Check any case-specific directions before incurring medical or travel expenses.
Separate the application fee from a petition or later immigration charge
The State Department’s fee schedule lists immigrant-visa processing at 325 US dollars per person for immediate-relative and family-preference cases based on the specified approved petitions. Employment-based cases have a different 345-dollar processing charge, while the listed other-immigrant category is 205 dollars. The applicable category matters; there is no single fee that covers every applicant at Havana.
These processing fees are non-refundable. They are also separate from petition filing, medical examinations and any later USCIS immigrant fee. A previously paid petition charge should not be counted as payment of the immigrant-visa application fee. Conversely, check the case’s payment record before paying an amount already collected through the National Visa Center. The published fee schedule does not establish a purchasable exemption from the proclamation or a guaranteed favourable decision, and it should not be presented as the complete family relocation budget.
