The simple answer is yes. It’s perfectly legal for Americans to travel to Cuba, except for explicit tourism purposes. However, you will need to meet some requirements.
Specifically, you need a Cuban Tourist Card (a.k.a Cuban Visa), travel insurance, and a self-certification under one of the 12 travel categories of authorized travel to Cuba. You must also avoid spending money at some restricted businesses and keep your travel receipts and records for 5 years.
We’ll fill you in on what you need to do, step by step, to legally travel to Cuba from the US.
The regulation that prohibits most travel to Cuba by US citizens is the Cuban Assets Control Regulations of July 8, 1963. This regulation falls under the Trading With the Enemy Act, administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
The Cuban Assets Control Regulations, amended many times, impose a trade embargo on Cuba and don’t allow Americans to visit Cuba as tourists. However, the regulations allow for specific travel categories to Cuba, such as educational and cultural exchange programs, professional research, and support for the Cuban people.
All visitors to Cuba, regardless of country of origin, need to have a special visa called a tourist card. You’ll need your tourist card when you board your flight to Cuba.
You’ve got a few different options:
The most common way visitors get their Cuba tourist card is by purchasing it directly through your airline.
Each company handles the process a bit differently. Some airlines will include the visa cost in the ticket price, while others will have you buy it separately. The visa costs 50 USD on top of a processing fee between 25-35 USD.
Here are travel visa prices from a few major airlines:
American Airlines: 85 USD (50 USD visa fee + 35 USD processing fee) if purchased online. 100 USD (50 USD visa fee + 50 USD processing fee) if purchased in person at Miami (MIA) airport
Delta: 50 USD, purchase in-person at the gate.
JetBlue: 50 USD, purchase in-person at the gate.
Southwest Airlines: 75 USD (50 USD visa fee + 25 USD processing fee) can be purchased online or in person at the gate.
United Airlines: 75 USD (50 USD visa fee + 25 USD service charge), purchase in-person at the gate.
If your airline ticket doesn’t have your travel visa built-in, you can buy it separately using the site Easy Tourist Card.
You can expect to pay around 144 USD for a 30-day tourist card, which is more than if you bought it packaged in with your ticket.
All Americans traveling to Cuba need a “license”, technically referred to as a “general license,” or a category of authorized travel to Cuba. These categories are defined by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
In this article, we indistinctively use “license”, “travel license”, “general license,” and “travel category”.
Confusingly, even though it’s called a license, it’s not actually a license like a driver’s license or even a tourist visa. It’s not a physical document you need to bring to Cuba.
NOTE: As of September 2020, there may be two travel categories that DO require a physical document: Professional Research and Professional Meetings; and Public Performances, Clinics, Workshops, athletic and other competitions, and exhibitions.
Getting a Cuba general license means:
Confusing terminology aside, getting your Cuba general license is pretty easy. Take a look at our step-by-step section below.