For Cuban-Americans, opportunities to travel to the island have significantly multiplied this week with the passing of the omnibus bill. As previously noted, individuals with relatives on the island are now allowed to visit them annually, instead of once every three years. But the new allowances go even further, by broadening the definition of “family.” The Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control published yesterday the new regulations for the “General License for Visits to Close Relatives to Cuba,” detailing the new definition’s parameters:
(b) For the purpose of this general license, the term ‘close relative’ used with respect to any person means any individual related to that person by blood, marriage or adoption who is no more than three generations removed from that person or from a common ancestor with that person.
Example to paragraph (b): Your mother’s first cousin is your close relative for the purposes of this section, because you are both no more than three generations removed from your great-grandparents, who are the ancestors you have in common. Similarly, your husband’s great-grandson is your close relative for the purposes of this section, because he is no more than three generations removed from you. Your daughter’s father-in-law is not your close relative for the purposes of this section, because you have no common ancestor.
Previous policy considered only immediate family for the license. And yet, there’s more: the daily spending allowance for these individuals while in Cuba has been increased from $50 to around $180.
On the one hand, then, this is a considerable shift. But on the other, it falls short of fulfilling Obama’s campaign promise to lift all curbs on visits by Cuban-Americans to the island; it continues to ban Americans from traveling to Cuba without a special license; and in the end, only a small number of people are likely affected by this particular policy change. But this is still a policy shift, and insofar as it is still within the first 100 days of Obama’s presidency, it is a significant one. The door to Cuba, which was very nearly closed, is now cracked.