Hotscot

Didn't Beyonce and Jay Zed go recently without repercussions?

Michael

Beyonce and Jay Z's Cuba trip declared legal - CNN.com

The report states that the couple's trip to Cuba was properly licensed by the Office of Foreign Assets Control under the "people-to-people" educational exchange program. The license was issued to a nonprofit organization that has a mission to promote education in the fields of art, architecture and the decorative arts

Hotscot

That's one way of doing it...

kimilseung

Freedoms my ass.

Hotscot

Good point.

Carry a picture ID everywhere with you to get anything done, restricted travel, no fly lists, NSA.

Steve_

No-one seems to have mentioned you can actually comply with the law and get State Dept. permission to visit Cuba.

But going the via Canada route is a bad idea. It's illegal and it's one of those stupid things where you end up in removal proceedings for no sensible reason, e.g. LPRs who check the wrong box on a federally-backed mortgage application.

kimilseung

If you know, who has this happened to? I'd like to read up on it.

Steve_

Well there have been plenty of threads of people on here who have ended up in crazy situations with naturalization by checking the wrong box on a form years ago, and there is a famous case of a German girl who was adopted and ended up in removal proceedings for having a fight with another girl in school (she got a one-year suspended sentence - thus an "aggravated felony" because it was a violent crime). She only got out of it because the Governor of Georgia pardoned her.

So if you end up in removal proceedings for things as trivial as that, committing a Federal offense would seem to be a very unwise thing to do.

This is why I always tell people they should naturalize as soon as they possibly can, because people get too wound up about taxes and Selective Service, but in reality for all you know you could end up in a fight in a bar or run someone over or whatever and end up being deported.

So think about what happened to that girl and then read this article: Man with bloody chainsaw let into U.S. - World - CBC News

Yep, US citizen, so hey you've got a bloody chainsaw in your luggage, WELCOME HOME!

kimilseung

So if going to Cuba, do it as a citizen, so its a fine, at worse, rather than sent packing back to Blighty?

Jerseygirl

They are friends of Obama.

Bnet36

OP if you are desperate to go once you get your LPR here's how (I have people in our department at work that do the research route all the time)
Legal Travel to Cuba for Americans and Why NOW is the Time to Go!

kimilseung

These seem to be uber package tours though.

TMR

Frankly I'd go just to spite the Americans and their stupid rule. 'Land of the Free' my arse.

Cuba is a fantastic country if you're willing to get about. I wouldn't bother with a resort there. The ones I saw near Varadero looked interchangeable. Cubans are allowed to let rooms in their homes provided they pay taxes, so it's a good idea to stay with them. If you speak some Spanish it helps a lot.

By the way they stamped my British passport but I believe you can ask them not to. Don't carry any obvious items like cigars back into the US. How would they ever know you'd visited?

steveq

You really think that they can't work it out, if they needed to ?

hungryhorace

The plane operator(s) manifests are automatically shared with the US gvt under the Patriot Act. Every flight you take either in the US or Canada is known about.

Now whether USCIS would be bothered to look this information up is debatable. Point is, why take the risk when the potential downsides far out weight the benefits.