Post #160200 by thejab on Thu, May 19, 2005 4:06 PM

Yes, I got that Via issue as well, thanks.

As far as travel for educational and cultural reasons, it seems that those days are over. From Frommers.com:

Licenses granted for educational travel and certain humanitarian trips, particularly those organized by religious groups, used to be a major route for legal travel to Cuba, but these were severely curtailed by the Bush administration in 2004.

A vague area exists in the realm of "fully hosted" trips. According to the regulations, a U.S. citizen can travel to Cuba without violating the Treasury ban provided he or she does not pay for any goods or services, including food and lodging, or provide any services to Cuba or a Cuban national while in the country. This provision had been widely used by U.S. citizens to buy packages from Canadian, Mexican, or Bahamian tour agencies. However, the Treasury Department has caught on to this tactic and has declared any "fully hosted" trip that is clearly for pleasure or tourism is in violation of the regulations.

This is encouraging, then discouraging:

It is estimated that as many as 80,000 U.S. citizens travel to Cuba each year without a Treasury Department license. The vast majority of travelers use third-country gateway cities like Toronto, Montréal, Cancún, Nassau, or Kingston, and are never questioned or bothered by U.S. authorities upon return. However, the Bush administration has cracked down on unlicensed travelers, and reports of tourists being caught have increased dramatically.

Officially, U.S. citizens who violate the ban face up to 10 years in prison, $250,000 in criminal fines, and $50,000 in civil fines. ... As of press time, no one has yet been tried or convicted.

Maybe I should shut up now. They may be listening!

They say the tourist visa is easy to obtain without a permit from the travel agent the flight is booked through.