News report | | 04/07/2025 | ±2 minutes reading time

The tourist card for Cuba will remain valid until the end of 2025. Some time ago, Cuban authorities announced that travellers to the island would need to apply for an e-visa for Cuba. However, the immigration authorities have recently announced that the paper tourist card will remain valid for another six months.

Transition to the electronic visa

Cuba introduced the electronic visa in the summer of 2024. Cuba was, at the time, one of the few countries that didn't offered an evisa yet. The only option was the physical paper visa, also referred to as "tourist card", or Tarjeta de Turista in Spanish. With the introduction of the electronic visa, Cuba tried to modernise the legal procudures at the border. Besides, this would make it easier for travellers to apply for their Cuba visa from home.

The e-visa can indeed be applied for online in just a few minutes. You just need to fill in a digital application form and pay the fee. After that, your application will be processed within 3 days on average. You will then receive a link by e-mail which will allow you to activate your e-visa via the website of the Cuban immigration authorities.

Deadline postponed again

Initially, the tourist card should have been replaced by the e-visa by 31 December 2024. Although the Cuban authorities haven't issued any new tourist cards for some time already, many travellers are still in possession of unused tourist cards. In order to accomodate these individuals, in 2025 there will be a final six-month transition period during which it will be possible to use both the e-visa and the tourist card to travel to Cuba. On 1 July 2025, this final transition period to the e-visa will start, after which the tourist card will be eliminated for good.

The Cuban ministry of tourism has now announced that it will still be possible to use the tourist card for another six more months, until 31 December 2025. This is good news for travellers who had applied for their Cuba visa well before their expected departure date. They have now extra time to use their tourist card. However, no new physical visas will be issued anymore. Travellers who don't have a visa for Cuba yet can easily apply for one online.
Apply online for your e-visa Cuba

Entry form D'Viajeros

Whether you are travelling with an e-visa or a with a physical tourist card, you should always register your trip at D'Viajeros, the Cuban immigration website. In the D'Viajeros form, you need to indicate a series of data about your trip and the accommodation where you will be staying in Cuba. Besides, you will have to indicate if you want to declare items at customs and if you show symptoms of certain diseases. The D'Viajeros form is also used to activate your e-visa. After sending the D'Viajeros form, you will receive a confirmation with a QR code that you will need to print or save digitally, so that you can produce it upon arrival in Cuba.

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 £27.72 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.