Although on the website of the United States Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for sometime, the Comprehensive Guidelines for License Applications to Engage in Travel Related Transactions Involving Cuba has been outdated for quite a while. Today, OFAC finally was able to update those guidelines.

The update provided some much needed guidance concerning prohibited importations from Cuba and with authorized travel related transactions for those traveling to Cuba under an OFAC license. Here are some of the most important points regarding those topics:

1. Authorized Cuba travelers are prohibited from importing into the United States any merchandise purchased or otherwise acquired in Cuba, regardless of whether these articles are accompanied baggage or otherwise. This prohibition extends to cigars and alcohol, whether as accompanied baggage or otherwise.

2. As is the case with most OFACadministered sanctions regulations, the importation of information and informational materials, for example, publications, films, posters, phonograph records, photographs, tapes, compact discs, and artwork is exempt from the prohibitions. Therefore, such Cuban-origin articles can be imported into the United States.

3. There is no expenditure limit placed on transactions ordinarily incident to travel. For a list of those transactions considered to be incident to travel and authorized under general license or licensable pursuant to specific licenses please see section 515.560(c) of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations.

4. Authorized travelers may also engage in all transactions ordinarily incident to travel anywhere within Cuba, such as hotel accommodations, meals, local transportation, and goods personally used by the traveler in Cuba. There is caveat, however. These expenditures cannot exceed the State Department per diem rate allowance for Havana, Cuba, in place during the period that the travel takes place, unless the authorized activities require increased expenditures. For information on the State Department’s per diem rate allowance, please consult the Department of State’s Office of
Allowances Website at (http://aoprals.state.gov).

5. The CACR also authorizes most licensed travelers to engage in additional transactions that are directly incident to carrying out the activities for which their travel-related transactions are authorized. Unlike other sanctions programs, specific licenses for travel to Cuba can only be given out for certain categories of travel. Those categories are addressed in OFAC’s updated guidelines.

The author of this blog is Erich Ferrari, an attorney specializing in OFAC matters. If you have any questions please contact him at 202-280-6370 or ferrari@ferrari-legal.com.

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