Help Visa for the US after holiday in Cuba

bellabella

Hi all i have today found out i cannot apply for an ESTA online visa for a cruise departing from Fort Lauderdale in March 2023 as i visited Cuba for a holiday earlier this year as they are regarded as a hostile country by the US so i will have to go and have an interview at the embassy to apply for a holiday visa . I have looked at the US Gov website but i cannot get my head around it has anyone else had to book an appointment if so please could you explain the process and roughly how long in advance i need to book the appointment Thanks in advance

DullGreyGuy

There have been a couple of people recently but they've all been last minute and found there aren't any appointments left in 2022. 

The general advice is to get onto it as quickly as possible else you may find you've timed out

bellabella

Dull Grey Guy Do you happen to know how long the visa lasts for?

DullGreyGuy

Depends on the type of visa you apply for and are awarded... a B1/B2 visa is typically valid for 10 years from date of issuance. 

Alan_Bowen

Earliest appointments in London are believed to be in February, possibly earlier if you get to Belfast, so the advice to apply immediately is absolutely correct

bellabella

Thank you all we fly in March and this was booked before the change  as was my trip to Cuba and as always i had checked the FCO on booking and seen nothing since  in the media .
I have spoken to the cruise co who will change dates and or destination for a very minimal charge so to be honest i will probably go with that and if we decide to ever go to the US again i will apply well in advance now i know the new rules if they dont change again it does make me wonder how many people will fall foul of this new ruling this year

Neil49

You don't specifically state it but I presume that you have a Cuban stamp in your actual passport and that they didn't just stamp a separate tourist visa document (which is what they typically do). 

If you check the other fairly recent posts on the same topic I recall that one suggestion (which you would have time to do) is to simply apply for a new passport. 

Caz3121

Neil49 said:

You don't specifically state it but I presume that you have a Cuban stamp in your actual passport and that they didn't just stamp a separate tourist visa document (which is what they typically do). 

If you check the other fairly recent posts on the same topic I recall that one suggestion (which you would have time to do) is to simply apply for a new passport. 

my concern on that approach is the way they ask the questions on the ESTA application
whilst they have not added Cuba to the list yet (or added new question) the current related question is
"9) Have you traveled to, or been present in Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen on or after March 1, 2011?"
rather than "have you traveled to.........on your current passport"
so, if they update the form and someone travels on a new passport they would need to lie on the application....not sure if II would risk that unless I was not bothered about going to the US in the next x years

I was on a cruise a few years ago where passengers missed the ship as were retained by US customs as had failed to declare a visit to one of the banned countries and had applied for an ESTA when they should have applied for a visa.

bellabella

Hi yes i do have the stamp in my passport i did debate loosing my passport and getting a new one but to be honest i think if you fly in US airspace to get to Cuba the airline provides a manifest to the authorities and if i go and am turned away at the border it will be a very expensive mistake on my part at least this way i can salvage something . My travel agent did say they only knew of the change when another customer called up with the same issue so if travel agents aren't aware not sure how many travellers will be 

DullGreyGuy

Caz3121 said:

Neil49 said:

You don't specifically state it but I presume that you have a Cuban stamp in your actual passport and that they didn't just stamp a separate tourist visa document (which is what they typically do). 

If you check the other fairly recent posts on the same topic I recall that one suggestion (which you would have time to do) is to simply apply for a new passport. 

my concern on that approach is the way they ask the questions on the ESTA application
whilst they have not added Cuba to the list yet (or added new question) the current related question is
"9) Have you traveled to, or been present in Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen on or after March 1, 2011?"
rather than "have you traveled to.........on your current passport"
so, if they update the form and someone travels on a new passport they would need to lie on the application....not sure if II would risk that unless I was not bothered about going to the US in the next x years

I was on a cruise a few years ago where passengers missed the ship as were retained by US customs as had failed to declare a visit to one of the banned countries and had applied for an ESTA when they should have applied for a visa.

I agree about the lying aspect however we are currently in this strange limbo where the ESTA process doesnt mention Cuba at all and so you wouldnt be lying in that process.

I not going to claim to have any idea what data flows between different border agencies or what additional information they see on their screens when they scan your passport. My gut says its probably less than I used to think it was based on recent incidents but wouldnt want someone else betting their holiday on my hunch. 

Obviously the US isnt the first country to ban people who have been elsewhere, several middle east countries ban people who have visited Israel. In practice with them, or at least Lebanon, it was a quick flick through the passport and even if there was a stamp most the time it wasnt spotted (and these days Israel don't stamp passports). A friend used to regularly travel to both countries and never had a problem. Now you'd probably imagine that US border security have more advanced systems and more data sharing than Lebanon but again its assumptions. 

All border agencies are a pain when they want to be... was detained for 2 hours once at Gatwick because the agent stated divorce invalidated a visa despite the home office having renewed the visa post the divorce (which was in the visa application along with the additional supporting docs that meant the application needed). A few weeks later spoke to the head of immigration for Gatwick who said ironically they'd just looked at the last entry slip and as we didnt have a problem that time we wouldnt next time... the chap had noted it as a pass straight through and not mentioned making us wait in the pen for 2 hours before then calling us forward and waiving us through without any discussion, explanation or apology.  

zagubov

It used to be routine that you could apply for two British passports if you routinely visited the USA/ Israel/South Africa/Taiwan and what we used to call the Western Bloc but also visited the Eastern Bloc, Cuba, Arab republics, Iran, most of Africa, mainland China and most of the rest of the world.

I thought we'd moved forward from this but so it goes.