US to Restart Issuing Immigrant Visa from Havana

The US embassy in Cuba will restart issuing immigrant visas four years after it halted the process amid a suspicion over the so-called “Havana syndrome”.

Timothy Zuniga-Brown, the top U.S. diplomat in Havana, said the Cuban embassy will soon be beefed up with more consular officers.

As of November 2021, as many as 90,000 Cubans are reportedly waiting to book an appointment with the consulate officials. A majority of the Cubans looking for a visa are those who want to reunite with their families in the United States.

Today Cubans are required to visit US embassies in Guyana or the Colombian city of Bogota to seek a visa to enter the United States. Denied a chance to get a visa, many Cubans took a dangerous journey across the sea. Reports say that more than 40,000 Cubans could be living illegally in the U.S.

In 2017, dozens of US diplomats in the US embassy in Havana complained of migraines, nausea, lapses in memory, and dizziness. The sickness was later dubbed Havana Syndrome.

A lengthy investigation by CIA investigation found no evidence of Cuban state involvement in the mysterious ailment.