To be honest, it can be such a hassle trying to extend a visa once you are already in Cuba, that for the sake of an extra 5 days, I would stick with the standard tourist card. Yes, you can extend it but this usually means that you have to return to the same immigration portal that you arrived at having bought the necessary stamps from a bank and having a receipt from either your hotel or casa particulares for the whole of your stay. Not easy of you arrived in Havana and are then staying in eg Santiago.
Which brings you to the 2nd problem - it's very difficult for foreigner visitors to stay in a family home if the house isn't a registered Casa Particulares and don't forget, you need to produce documentation for the Cuban immigration authorities confirming where you will be staying and your return flight ticket. It is illegal in most circumstances for Cubans to have any non-family visitors stay overnight in their homes, let alone a foreigner, unless they are a registered Casa. And if she is registered she will be required to pay tax on the assumed rent she will be charging you.
The laws are different if you can prove that you are in an established bona fide relationship but unless you are married or in a civil partnership this can be hard to prove. The only people I know who have been able to enter Cuba and stay with a boy or girlfriend have made frequent and repeated visits on a standard tourist card and then as a result been able to prove that this is a relationship of some longstanding that is now moving up a notch. Or their Cuban partner has lived in the UK for some time and they can prove they have shared a home here and are now travelling together to visit family etc.
I don't want to pry or seem nosy but much will depend on the nature of your relationship and how long it has been in existence. To be honest if you met fairly recently whilst you were on holiday in Cuba, expect a hard time from the Cuban authorities. The only person I know who has been able to stay hassle free with his partner in her unregistered home for an extended period had previously sponsored her to come and stay with him in the UK for a month. This was seen by the Cuban authorities as evidence that this was a serious relationship and they granted him his visa without the, having to jump through too many hoops.
Finally, don't even think of overstaying your 30 days if you do enter on tourist card. You have to produce the 2nd part of it on departure and it causes all sorts of trouble if the dates don't match or if you can't produce it. I'm assuming that you haven't actually booked your flights yet because most operators will not issue you with tickets for anything longer than 30 days unless you are able to confirm that you will be able to get an extended visa.
There are ways of circumventing the rules but these cost money one way or the other. For example the simplest way of getting a longer visa is to travel on a student visa but you will have to produce evidence of being booked onto eg a language course. And equally for a consideration an obliging friend whose home is a registered Casa might be willing to provide the relevant receipts that will be needed for an extended tourist stay but at the very least they will expect you to recompense them for the tax they will have to pay on the rent they are supposedly received from you. But if this is your first visit to Cuba, or even your first visit back to Cuba specifically to visit your girlfriend, then you need to tread cautiously until you get a proper feel for life outside of the tourist bubble.
A bit more information might help me point you in the direction of more detailed info.
SM
Which brings you to the 2nd problem - it's very difficult for foreigner visitors to stay in a family home if the house isn't a registered Casa Particulares and don't forget, you need to produce documentation for the Cuban immigration authorities confirming where you will be staying and your return flight ticket. It is illegal in most circumstances for Cubans to have any non-family visitors stay overnight in their homes, let alone a foreigner, unless they are a registered Casa. And if she is registered she will be required to pay tax on the assumed rent she will be charging you.
The laws are different if you can prove that you are in an established bona fide relationship but unless you are married or in a civil partnership this can be hard to prove. The only people I know who have been able to enter Cuba and stay with a boy or girlfriend have made frequent and repeated visits on a standard tourist card and then as a result been able to prove that this is a relationship of some longstanding that is now moving up a notch. Or their Cuban partner has lived in the UK for some time and they can prove they have shared a home here and are now travelling together to visit family etc.
I don't want to pry or seem nosy but much will depend on the nature of your relationship and how long it has been in existence. To be honest if you met fairly recently whilst you were on holiday in Cuba, expect a hard time from the Cuban authorities. The only person I know who has been able to stay hassle free with his partner in her unregistered home for an extended period had previously sponsored her to come and stay with him in the UK for a month. This was seen by the Cuban authorities as evidence that this was a serious relationship and they granted him his visa without the, having to jump through too many hoops.
Finally, don't even think of overstaying your 30 days if you do enter on tourist card. You have to produce the 2nd part of it on departure and it causes all sorts of trouble if the dates don't match or if you can't produce it. I'm assuming that you haven't actually booked your flights yet because most operators will not issue you with tickets for anything longer than 30 days unless you are able to confirm that you will be able to get an extended visa.
There are ways of circumventing the rules but these cost money one way or the other. For example the simplest way of getting a longer visa is to travel on a student visa but you will have to produce evidence of being booked onto eg a language course. And equally for a consideration an obliging friend whose home is a registered Casa might be willing to provide the relevant receipts that will be needed for an extended tourist stay but at the very least they will expect you to recompense them for the tax they will have to pay on the rent they are supposedly received from you. But if this is your first visit to Cuba, or even your first visit back to Cuba specifically to visit your girlfriend, then you need to tread cautiously until you get a proper feel for life outside of the tourist bubble.
A bit more information might help me point you in the direction of more detailed info.
SM
Thanks my friend,my head is going to explode with the different infirmation i am getting,i rang the cuban embassy in london & she said i can stay at the girls house as long as i inform immigration when i arrive in cuba so i suppose i will take that as correct
What a really detailed and helpful post SMa
Thank you,i have rung the cuban embassy & they said i can stay at the girls house as long as i inform immigration at cayo coco airport
Hi, thanks for the positive feedback Miss Pink, but I'm not sure that the OP has found it helpful - they've been back on here twice since I posted it and has presumably read it but haven't acknowledged it! Makes you wonder why you bother doesn't it?
SM
SM
I have tried twice to post my reply
Sma
It hasn't gone to waste as I think there is a lot of useful information for others. Perhaps the OP will come back and reply yet.
It hasn't gone to waste as I think there is a lot of useful information for others. Perhaps the OP will come back and reply yet.
OK Firstly welcome to HT nachoman66 
We are generally a friendly place despite possible initial impressions
New posters have to have their posts approved before they appear in public view on the open board, it is disappointing and rather unwelcoming that you have taken this attitude of criticism within such a short period of time, it is not the way we try and promote HT to new members.
I agree that there are many new posters who come on to HT asking for help or advice and get detailed replies just to disappear without so much as an acknowledgement let alone a thank you, however it is only polite and courteous to allow an appropriate and reasonable period of time for a reply before criticising.
We are generally a friendly place despite possible initial impressions
Hi, thanks for the positive feedback Miss Pink, but I'm not sure that the OP has found it helpful - they've been back on here twice since I posted it and has presumably read it but haven't acknowledged it! Makes you wonder why you bother doesn't it?
New posters have to have their posts approved before they appear in public view on the open board, it is disappointing and rather unwelcoming that you have taken this attitude of criticism within such a short period of time, it is not the way we try and promote HT to new members.
I agree that there are many new posters who come on to HT asking for help or advice and get detailed replies just to disappear without so much as an acknowledgement let alone a thank you, however it is only polite and courteous to allow an appropriate and reasonable period of time for a reply before criticising.
I was not aware that new posters had their posts vetted before they appeared on the board so what I was seeing was that nachoman66 was coming on to HT but apparently not posting. I apologise to you and Kiltman for my mistake - I hope that you enjoy your trip to Cuba.
SM
SM
No problem my friend,thanks anyway
Nachoman66, judging by the conversation you have had with the Embassy, it sounds as if things have loosened up a bit since my last visit in March 2013 which must be good news for you. However, whilst I don't want to sound overly pessimistic and I might be teaching Granny how to suck eggs here, I think that you need to get the Embassy to confirm that either in a letter or at least an email that you can print out and take with you rather than just relying on what you have been told over the phone.
Cuban officialdom is incredibly bureaucratic and, dare I say it, even capricious at times if not downright contradictory depending on whom you have spoken to. The Embassy and consular staff here will see it as part of their job to be as helpful as possible and to encourage as many visitors to Cuba as they can. On the whole they tend not to put difficulties in the way of tourists and tell them things that might deter them from going. On the other hand, Immigration and Customs Staff at the airports see it as their job to apply the rules to the letter and what those rules are can change at very short notice and with very little publicity. Hence why so many rumours fly around about what visitors can and can't take in with them (yes, travel irons and kettles were once banned - now they are not!) and whether you need to have a copy of your travel insurance policy with you etc. If in doubt making sure that you have a copy of everything that they could possibly ask for is the only practice to adopt.
So there is always the possibility that the man or woman in the Immigration booth will flatly deny that what you have been told by the Embassy in London is correct. It might have been when you asked but it isn't now is always a possible response. So it is important not to rely on just being able to tell them what you were told over the phone but to be able to produce a piece of paper from the Embassy to that effect. Cuban bureaucracy thrives on paperwork - lots of it.
Another reason for having this is that if you are flying direct to Cayo Coco from the UK, on the whole the Customs and Immigration staff at Cayo Coco airport will be used to only dealing with tourists who are on packages staying at one of the big AI resort hotels for a 14 night stay with a possible overnighter or few additional days in Havana. They will rarely encounter visitors who are planning on staying for 35 days and you won't be able to conceal this because they will ALWAYS ask to see your return ticket in my experience. This will usually have your planned return date on it because few visitors to Cuba travel on open tickets because of the cost. So you can expect your documents to be scrutinised more carefully than the average tourist's. On the other hand, if you are flying into Havana and then taking in internal flight to Cayo Coco then you will go through Immigrations and Customs on first arriving in Havana and you can expect them to more used to dealing with visitors who don't fit the standard 14 nights AI tourist picture and have more varied travel plans.
Even if I am telling you things that you already know I thought that others who might come across this thread later will still find the info of use.
SM
Cuban officialdom is incredibly bureaucratic and, dare I say it, even capricious at times if not downright contradictory depending on whom you have spoken to. The Embassy and consular staff here will see it as part of their job to be as helpful as possible and to encourage as many visitors to Cuba as they can. On the whole they tend not to put difficulties in the way of tourists and tell them things that might deter them from going. On the other hand, Immigration and Customs Staff at the airports see it as their job to apply the rules to the letter and what those rules are can change at very short notice and with very little publicity. Hence why so many rumours fly around about what visitors can and can't take in with them (yes, travel irons and kettles were once banned - now they are not!) and whether you need to have a copy of your travel insurance policy with you etc. If in doubt making sure that you have a copy of everything that they could possibly ask for is the only practice to adopt.
So there is always the possibility that the man or woman in the Immigration booth will flatly deny that what you have been told by the Embassy in London is correct. It might have been when you asked but it isn't now is always a possible response. So it is important not to rely on just being able to tell them what you were told over the phone but to be able to produce a piece of paper from the Embassy to that effect. Cuban bureaucracy thrives on paperwork - lots of it.
Another reason for having this is that if you are flying direct to Cayo Coco from the UK, on the whole the Customs and Immigration staff at Cayo Coco airport will be used to only dealing with tourists who are on packages staying at one of the big AI resort hotels for a 14 night stay with a possible overnighter or few additional days in Havana. They will rarely encounter visitors who are planning on staying for 35 days and you won't be able to conceal this because they will ALWAYS ask to see your return ticket in my experience. This will usually have your planned return date on it because few visitors to Cuba travel on open tickets because of the cost. So you can expect your documents to be scrutinised more carefully than the average tourist's. On the other hand, if you are flying into Havana and then taking in internal flight to Cayo Coco then you will go through Immigrations and Customs on first arriving in Havana and you can expect them to more used to dealing with visitors who don't fit the standard 14 nights AI tourist picture and have more varied travel plans.
Even if I am telling you things that you already know I thought that others who might come across this thread later will still find the info of use.
SM
yes my friend,i have gathered things change like the wind in cuba,i have tried to e-mail the cuban embassy in london without my e-mil arriving there,i certainly will try to get confirmation in writing if possible.also i am arriving at cayo coco airport
Do you mind me asking where your girlfriend lives? My reason for asking is that the Cayos were inhabited before the hotel developments took place and so I am assuming that she lives on the mainland as nobody lives permanently on them. All the staff working in the hotels ar usually bussed in at the beginning and end of their shifts. Also, have you already booked your flights? If you haven't, you might want to consider flying into another airport - the public transport links between the main towns in the region and Cayo Coco airport seem to be very poor because most visitors arriving there are going to be transferred to their hotel by their TO or the hotel reps. If you are flying from the UK (is that correct?) then you will find that there are much better public transport links between both Havana and Holguin and the rest of the island. Both at widely served by the Viazul bus network but as far as I know Cayo Coco isn't.
As far as I know the causeway between Cayo Coco and the mainland is still through a gated toll barrier so the only way for you to leave the Cayo will be in a state licenced taxi or being able to see if the driver of one of the excursion buses will take you across in return for a 'donation' if there is a spare seat. Unfortunately, this also means that your girlfriend will almost certainly not be able to get onto the Cayo to meet you at the airport. Like it or not, the authorities are very keen to control prostitution on the Cayos and this usually means that anybody travelling to the Cayos needs to show their passport and prove that they are not a Cuban citizen unless they are travelling to work on the island. Tourists can drive themselves to the Cayo in a rental car but they are usually inspected to check that there are no Cuban nationals in the car. Unlicensed, local taxis are usually prevented from crossing the causeway onto Cayo Coco. Flying into Cayo Coca brings difficulties that would probably be less of a problem at another international arrivals airport. Even Varadero is better placed for public transport links but if she lives in either Ciego de Vila or Camaguey regions, probably no more convenient than either Havana or Holguin.
SM
As far as I know the causeway between Cayo Coco and the mainland is still through a gated toll barrier so the only way for you to leave the Cayo will be in a state licenced taxi or being able to see if the driver of one of the excursion buses will take you across in return for a 'donation' if there is a spare seat. Unfortunately, this also means that your girlfriend will almost certainly not be able to get onto the Cayo to meet you at the airport. Like it or not, the authorities are very keen to control prostitution on the Cayos and this usually means that anybody travelling to the Cayos needs to show their passport and prove that they are not a Cuban citizen unless they are travelling to work on the island. Tourists can drive themselves to the Cayo in a rental car but they are usually inspected to check that there are no Cuban nationals in the car. Unlicensed, local taxis are usually prevented from crossing the causeway onto Cayo Coco. Flying into Cayo Coca brings difficulties that would probably be less of a problem at another international arrivals airport. Even Varadero is better placed for public transport links but if she lives in either Ciego de Vila or Camaguey regions, probably no more convenient than either Havana or Holguin.
SM
hello again,the girl lives in falla about 8 miles from moron,i have been to cayo coco where i met her in july via the workers bus i think,in november i met her at one of the hotels in cayo coco and we spent the second week in moron,as for the transfer,i am hiring a car from moron & the man is sending a driver & car for me to the airport,i am still very confused about staying at her house,the embassy in london says it's ok but i really need this in writing,thanks again
Aah, yes, if she lives in Falla I can see why you would have opted for Cayo Coco airport. And she is bound to know someone in Moron who does have their home registered as a Casa Particulares if you need paperwork.
Re the car, is this a rental from the state hire car company? If it isn't the driver could experience difficulties getting across the causeway to meet you at the airport and you will have to get a state licensed taxi as far as the barrier in order to meet him there.
If this is a private arrangement set up by your girlfriend based on you 'borrowing' a car from a friend of your girlfriend then be forewarned, if you don't already know, that the police will be able to tell a lot about the car and who should be driving it just by the number plate. Government cars and those owned by Government employees (they will have been able to buy it at preferential rates) have one type of registration plate, military vehicles (including those that don't necessarily look like they are) have another, as do those owned by private individuals and self drive car hires for the use of tourists have yet another. If you are stopped and the car does not have the right type of plate that matches who is driving it be ready for some hassle.
And if you are in a car with local owner or government plates on it be prepared to be flagged down by the marshals a with clipboards that are positioned at key road junctions. They have a list of everybody who is milling around the side of the road with info as to who needs a lift and to where and if the car has the relevant type of plate and a spare seat then you have to take any passenger who needs a lift to where you are going. See what I means about bureaucracy? Only the Cubans could make hitchhiking another bureaucratic nightmare. rofl
SM
Re the car, is this a rental from the state hire car company? If it isn't the driver could experience difficulties getting across the causeway to meet you at the airport and you will have to get a state licensed taxi as far as the barrier in order to meet him there.
If this is a private arrangement set up by your girlfriend based on you 'borrowing' a car from a friend of your girlfriend then be forewarned, if you don't already know, that the police will be able to tell a lot about the car and who should be driving it just by the number plate. Government cars and those owned by Government employees (they will have been able to buy it at preferential rates) have one type of registration plate, military vehicles (including those that don't necessarily look like they are) have another, as do those owned by private individuals and self drive car hires for the use of tourists have yet another. If you are stopped and the car does not have the right type of plate that matches who is driving it be ready for some hassle.
And if you are in a car with local owner or government plates on it be prepared to be flagged down by the marshals a with clipboards that are positioned at key road junctions. They have a list of everybody who is milling around the side of the road with info as to who needs a lift and to where and if the car has the relevant type of plate and a spare seat then you have to take any passenger who needs a lift to where you are going. See what I means about bureaucracy? Only the Cubans could make hitchhiking another bureaucratic nightmare. rofl
SM
i will be hiring a car from a registered car hire company my friend,cubacar
hi both what a wonderful topic this is brings back some nice memory's of my trips to cayo coco and varadaro..
sma well done you have so much knowleage.
yes it was amusing watching people stand by the road in the middle of no-where and just stop a passing car and they had to give them a lift. strange world
sma well done you have so much knowleage.
yes it was amusing watching people stand by the road in the middle of no-where and just stop a passing car and they had to give them a lift. strange world
With all the people,dogs & bycycles on the road i managed to knock a man off his bike but luckily he didn't make a fuss
At least hiring a rental from Cubacar means that you'll have tourist plates and the hitchhiking marshals won't be shovelling people into the car! And hats off to you for even driving on Cuban roads in the first place. You forgot to mention that other well known hazard on the more rural roads - the horse drawn carts!
SM
SM
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