Migration: Thousands of Cubans with tickets to Nicaragua do not have a visa

Havana/Thousands of Cuban citizens who bought airline tickets to Nicaragua before the abrupt imposition of a visa Last February their visa procedures were paralyzed. “Every time people come to ask, they tell us we have to wait,” he tells 14ymedio Juan –not his real name–, an artist employed by the Ministry of Culture who had been waiting to fly for more than a month and still can’t wait.

He bought a ticket with the Venezuelan airline Conviasa for $1,650 and assures that there are about 3,000 compatriots in the same situation. “They have not given a visa to any Cuban since they established the new requirements on the website,” he asserts. Although, he says, the company has decided to leave the tickets open for a year, he is not willing to wait much longer: “I prefer to go for a cultural exchange to another country even if I lose the money, because it seems to me that they are not going to give anything, those “What they want is to keep the money.”

The same is stated by a Cuban resident in Nicaragua, whose relatives on the Island were planning to travel to Managua. “No flight has been able to leave because almost no one’s visa is being approved,” he corroborates. According to their testimony, many passengers fear losing the money invested in the tickets. “And the worst thing is that Conviasa is not returning the money,” he adds.

The uncertainty began after the entry into force, on February 8, of a new policy that once again forces Cubans to apply for consular visa to travel to the Central American country. Although free, the measure, formalized by provision 001-2026 of the Nicaraguan Ministry of the Interior, reclassified Cuban citizens with ordinary passports from immigration category “A”, which since November 2021 allowed entry without a visa, to category “C”, corresponding to a “consulted” visa.

According to testimonials compiled by the Nicaraguan media in exile Confidentialthe Nicaraguan Embassy in Cuba indicated that applications had to be sent by email and promised a free process of about 35 business days, with exemption from requirements such as criminal records or financial solvency for those who already had tickets.

Hundreds of Cubans began the procedure trusting in these conditions. However, after a first delivery of some 70 visas in mid-February, the complainants assure Confidential that the process was stopped without clear explanations. “We do not know if our procedures are still in process,” said one of those affected in the complaint sent to the Nicaraguan media.

Added to the paralysis of consular procedures is the confusion generated by the Nicaraguan immigration system itself. At the end of February, the Ministry of the Interior enabled a digital platform to manage electronic visas. This new system included requirements from which those who purchased tickets before the change in immigration policy had initially been exempt.

Among the documents requested on the platform are bank statements to demonstrate financial solvency, updated criminal records, proof of employment and a confirmed accommodation reservation.

Those affected request that Managua allow those who purchased tickets before the immigration change to travel

The Nicaraguan Consulate informed applicants that use of the digital platform was optional and that applications submitted by email would remain valid. However, those affected affirm that so far there is no news of visas approved through that system.

The group requests that Managua allow those who purchased tickets before the immigration change to travel or, at least, that a mechanism be established that guarantees the validity of the tickets purchased under the previous conditions.

The visa-free regime was announced by the Government of Daniel Ortega on November 22, 2021. Although it was presented as a measure to promote commercial and family exchange, in practice it turned Managua into one of the main exit routes for Cubans who were trying to emigrate to the United States.

The tightening of Donald Trump’s measures in his second term – starting in January 2025 – which included the shielding of the border to not let any irregular migrants pass through, largely eliminated the Central American country as a “springboard”, but not as a destination. For a year now, and before the new immigration measures, a new wave of Cubans, discreet and silent, arrived in Nicaragua to carve out a new life.