Over the past few weeks there have been a number of articles regarding travel to Cuba and whether certain activities are allowed and which travel agencies and services providers are permitted to arrange and book travel to Cuba. A lot of misinformation has been published in recent months regarding travel to Cuba and many travel agencies have been misleading in their advertising by giving the impression that tourist travel to Cuba is now permitted.

Tourist travel to Cuba is still strictly prohibited. However, there are new opportunities to travel to Cuba that were not available to U.S. persons in the past. To help the public discern what is misleading from what is factual, The United States Department of the Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued a Cuba Travel Advisory last week.

The OFAC Travel Advisory acknowledged the misstatements in the media about unrestricted group travel to Cuba and countered that there are still significant travel restrictions on U.S. persons seeking to travel to Cuba. OFAC further clarified that they now specifically license organizations that sponsor and organize people to people educational exchange program to Cuba. However, these exchanges must meet the requirements of 31 C.F.R. 515.565(b)(2) which includes ensuring that travelers to Cuba maintain a full time schedule of educational exchange activities.

Furthermore, those organizing people to people educational exchanges must make their travel arrangements through a travel service provider authorized by OFAC or through a foreign travel service provider outside of the United States. Travelers to Cuba should also keep in mind that there is a daily spending limit while in Cuba and that U.S. persons are prohibited from bringing back to the U.S. any Cuban souvenirs or goods obtained during their time in Cuba.

While this advisory notice was very useful in dispelling the misleading statements made by some travel agencies and media sources, it also left open a number of questions regarding whether an entity can hold both an people to people exchange license and a travel service provider license, what constitutes “educational activities”, and whether one travel agency can fall under a larger organization’s specific license to organize people to people exchanges. Our office has been tackling some of these issues for the past week and this is an area that is really heating up as many people here in the U.S. are trying to use the new changes in licensing policy to travel to Cuba as soon as possible. I wouldn’t be surprised if OFAC supplements the aforementioned travel advisory with another advisory that answers some of these new questions that are being raised.

UPDATE: Since the publishing of this blog, it has become clear that OFAC will not allow for a U.S. person to hold both a people to people travel license and a travel service provider license. Also, U.S. persons attempting to fall under another organization’s license is prohibited, unless OFAC used its discretion to authorize a license application in which such a relationship was described to OFAC.

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.