News report | | 24/04/2025 | ±2 minutes reading time

For several months now, the Cuban Government has been offering a new electronic visa which can be applied for online. This e-visa will eventually replace the paper tourist card. As of 1 July 2025, the paper tourist card will no longer be accepted and all travellers will have to apply for an e-visa Cuba.

Introduction of the e-visa

Cuba is one of the few countries that still uses a physical visa. The physical visa for Cuba, also called "tourist card" or, in Spanish, Tarjeta del Turista is a paper card that travellers need to fill in by hand. The tourist card can be obtained through a visa agency, a travel agency or directly from the Cuban embassy.

To make border control procedures more simple and efficient, and to reduce paperwork, Cuban authorities have recently introduced the electronic visa. A new website was launched in August 2024 with this purpose. Since then, tourists can apply online for their visa in a few simple steps.

Transition phase with two visa types

The electronic visa for Cuba has therefore been available since the summer of 2024. Although the ultimate goal was to replace the physical visa, the e-visa was initially introduced as an alternative to the tourist card. Many travellers had already applied for a tourist card for a trip at a later date. In fact, when applying for the tourist card, you dont need to know your arrival date in Cuba yet. Travellers could actually apply for their tourist card months before their planned trip.

The Cuban immigration authorities have accommodated these travellers by temporarily accepting both the e-visa and the tourist card. This transition period will soon come to an end. Cuban authorities have announced that, as 1 July 2025, the tourist card will no longer be accepted. Then, all travellers will need to apply for an e-visa to Cuba.

Canadian travellers are excepted

Not all travellers need to comply with the e-visa requirement for Cuba. In fact, Canadian citizens benefit from a special agreement. If they arrive to Cuba on a direct flight from Canada, they do not need to apply for an e-visa, as their e-visa will be included in their flight ticket. Canadian travellers who make a stopover in another country and then fly to Cuba do need to apply for their own e-visa, though.

Canadian travellers do still need to register their trip to Cuba via D’Viajeros, a form provided by the Cuban immigration authorities. This form is mandatory for all international travellers, including British and Irish nationals. The form can be completed during the 7 days prior to arrival in Cuba. In addition to their passport details, in the D'Viajeros form, travellers need to provide information about their trip to Cuba, like their airline, flight number and address of accommodation in Cuba. In addition, travellers must inform about their health status and indicate if they wish to declare any items at customs.

e-Visa.co.uk is a commercial and professional visa agency, and supports travellers in obtaining, among others, the Cuba visa. e-Visa.co.uk is an official partner of the International Air Transport Association, IATA, with membership number 57231226, acts as an intermediary, is no law firm, nor does it employ lawyers, does not provide legal advice, and is in no way part of any government. You can also apply for a visa directly with the immigration service (20 EUR per visa). However, not with our level of support. If you submit your application via e-Visa.co.uk, our support centre is available to you 24/7. We also check your application before submitting it to the immigration authorities on your behalf. If we suspect any errors or omissions while doing so, we will personally contact you to ensure that your application can still be processed quickly and correctly. To use our services, you pay us 20 EUR in consular fees, which we pay to the immigration service on your behalf, as well as £27.93 in service fees as compensation for our services, including VAT. Our services have saved many travellers from major problems during their trip. Should an application be rejected despite our support and verification, we will refund the full purchase price (unless an application for a previous Cuba visa was rejected for the same traveller). Read more about our services here.