Cuba once again suspends visa services

Posted on Friday, 02.14.14

Cuba once again suspends visa services
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD
MWHITEFIELD@MIAMIHERALD.COM

Cuba's diplomatic mission in Washington said Friday that it had once
again suspended consular services and will no longer be granting visas,
except in humanitarian cases, because it can't find a U.S. bank to
handle its accounts.

If a solution to the impasse isn't reached soon, family visits to the
island, as well as academic, educational, sports, cultural, scientific
and other exchanges between Cuba and the United States, could be impacted.

"It also impacts Cubans in the United States who want to get their
passports renewed and have documents legalized for citizenship,'' said
Vivian Mannerud, whose company Airline Brokers sells tickets and makes
arrangements for trips to Cuba.

Like many local companies that sell tickets for Cuba charters, Mannerud
said she has some visas on hand for upcoming trips. "But if a new group
books, I don't know if I will have enough," she said.

For many years, Buffalo-based M&T Bank handled the accounts of the Cuban
Interests Section and the Cuban Permanent Mission to the United Nations
in New York. But last year, M&T informed the Cuban government that it
was getting out of the business of providing financial services for
diplomatic missions.

The Cuban Interests Section temporarily shut down its consular section
Nov. 26 after it reached a previous M&T deadline for closing its
accounts. But less than two weeks later, with the peak holiday travel
period approaching, M&T relented and gave Cuba an extension.

Cuba resumed issuing visas and has been looking for a new bank to handle
its accounts.

Under the new timetable, the Interests Section said that Friday was the
last day that M&T would accept deposits of Cuban fees for visas,
passports and other services and that March 1 is the date the bank has
set for closing Cuba's accounts.

"In spite of the ​​huge efforts made, as a result of the restrictions in
force, derived from the policy of economic, commercial and financial
blockade by the U.S. government against Cuba, it has been impossible for
the Interests Section to find a U.S.-based bank that could operate the
bank accounts of the Cuban diplomatic missions," the Interests Section
said in a press release.

The U.S. State Department said that since last summer, it has been
"actively working with the Cuban Interests Section to identify a new
bank to provide services to the Cuban missions" and would continue to
assist them as they try to find a long-term solution.

The State Department said it had reached out to more than 50 banks and
understood that several might be weighing whether to provide the
missions with banking services.

"If would be nice if a Cuban-American banker would step up to the plate
and help the community with this,'' said Mannerud.

Travel between the United States and the island has continued to grow.
The Havana Consulting Group estimates that Cuban-Americans and other
Americans on so-called people-to-people exchanges made an estimated
600,000 trips last year.

One reason handling Cuba's accounts may not be very attractive to U.S.
banks is because Cuba is on the U.S. State Department's list of state
sponsors of terrorism. Bank accounts of countries on the list are
subject to additional regulatory oversight and reporting requirements.

The Interests Section apologized for the inconvenience the suspension of
consular services might cause to Cuban and American citizens and the
"negative impact" it might have on visits to the island.

But it made no mention of suspending banking services for the U.S.
Interests Section in Havana — although the two diplomatic missions
generally follow the principle of reciprocity in terms of mutual
restrictions on operations and staffing levels.

Source: Cuba once again suspends visa services - Nation -
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http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/02/14/3935793/cuba-once-again-suspends-visa.html