Cuba is getting a new foreigners law. The texts have been out since May, and if you are interested in Cuba as a place to live, you can now read them in full: not just the laws themselves but also the implementing decrees that regulate the procedure in detail. They all appear in the same issue of the official gazette.
Gaceta Oficial No. 39 Ordinaria of 5 May 2026 contains three laws that the National Assembly had already passed on 19 July 2024: the Migration Law (Ley 171), the Citizenship Law (Ley 172) and the Foreigners Law (Ley 173). Alongside them come the Council of Ministers' decrees implementing the Migration Law (Decreto 136) and the Foreigners Law (Decreto 137), plus a resolution of the Interior Ministry on the citizenship register. They replace rules that date essentially from 1976: the Migration Law repeals Ley 1312 of 1976, and the Foreigners Law repeals Ley 1313 of the same day.
How Cuba stands overall as a place to live, with tax, everyday conditions and passport, is on our Cuba country page. Two points get too little space there: when the new law applies, and what residence for property owners and tenants, the residencia de inmobiliaria, will require in future.
When the new law takes effect
All three laws and both decrees share the same final clause: they enter into force 180 days after publication in the Gaceta Oficial. The gazette gives no calendar date, and none of the five instruments says whether calendar days or working days are meant. If they are calendar days, the new law applies, counting from 5 May 2026, from 1 November 2026, and in no case earlier. The Citizenship Law, however, counts its deadlines in working days as a rule under Article 13, unless calendar days are expressly stated, and the Migration and Foreigners Laws contain the same rule in their chapters on appeals (Articles 135 and 85). Counted in working days, the start date would be considerably later. In the end, what counts is how the Cuban authorities count. Until they name a date, the safe statement is: 180 days after publication.
Until then the old law applies. There are transitional rules for pending cases: migration procedures already under way when the decree enters into force are concluded under the law under which they began. So if you file an application before the new law takes effect, it will be decided under the old rules.
The new system of residence permits
The Migration Law divides foreigners into two categories. Non-residents are visitors, diplomats and invited guests. Residents come in five classes (Article 34):
You can only ever hold one class at a time, and while you are in the country you can apply to switch (Article 35). What matters for anyone moving to Cuba is the route to permanent residence: it expressly runs through provisional residence, which the law makes a prerequisite (Articles 46 and 47). Its purpose is to establish your "appropriate social integration".
The residencia de inmobiliaria: residence through a home
Residence for property owners is not new. Until now it was governed by two 2014 resolutions of the Interior and Tourism Ministries, which the new decree expressly repeals. The class now sits in the Migration Law itself, and its conditions are set by a decree of the Council of Ministers.
Who can get it
Article 44 of the Migration Law defines it as follows: it applies to owners or tenants of homes in real estate complexes or stand-alone buildings designated for this purpose, and to their foreign dependants who live there. The decree implementing the Migration Law (Decreto 136, Article 136) adds the decisive restriction: it concerns complexes and buildings managed and operated by state entities.
This is the sentence you need to know before you dream of a house in Havana. The residencia de inmobiliaria is not a residence for anyone who buys or rents a home in Cuba. It is tied to homes in state-run real estate projects, and the application does not go through you but through officials designated by the Minister of Tourism, who file it with the migration authorities as an official matter (Article 140).
What you have to submit
The requirements are in Article 139 of the decree:
On top of this come a passport copy with visa and proof of payment of the stamp duty for the ID document. The authority has 90 working days to process the application (Article 141). If it is approved, you must appear in person for identification, fingerprints and the issue of your papers (Article 142).
What it gives you
Under Article 137 of the decree, you are admitted for five years, renewable for two years at a time. You may travel around the country for tourism and, with the appropriate permit, work and do business. For tenants, the decree implementing the Foreigners Law adds: their residence runs no longer than the lease, up to five years, renewable in two-year steps, and beyond that only if the real estate company wants to continue the lease (Decreto 137, Article 55).
Residence comes with obligations. Under Article 41 of the Foreigners Law, as a resident you must register in the foreigners and migration register within ten days of entry. Under Article 43 you report every change of nationality, home address, civil status, family circumstances and work situation to the foreigners authority.
Working without a permit is expressly ruled out. Under Article 47 of the Foreigners Law, residentes temporales and residentes de inmobiliaria need a work permit from the Labour Ministry. Anyone already working as a residente de inmobiliaria must, under a transitional rule, show the work permit in order to renew their residence.
When it ends
Under Article 143 of the decree, the residence lapses if you lose ownership or the lease, and the dependants living in the home lose theirs along with you. It also ends if you stay abroad for more than a year or beyond an approved extension. If you sell the home or the lease ends, the Tourism Ministry informs the migration authority within seven days (Decreto 137, Article 57).
In plain terms: the residencia de inmobiliaria is a temporary residence tied to a property in a state project. It is not a gateway to a normal life in your own house in a Cuban neighbourhood.
Effective residence: the number that decides everything
One concept runs through the whole of the new law: residencia efectiva migratoria, effective migratory residence. Under Article 22 of the Migration Law, you have it if you spent the greater part of your time in the country in the year before the review. The decree turns this into a number (Decreto 136, Article 43): the authority establishes effective residence on its own initiative if you were in Cuba for more than 180 days in the previous year. If you fall short, you can apply to have it recognised if you were in the country for more than 120 days and provide further evidence of your ties (Articles 45 and 46).
Why this matters: permanent residence requires you to reach effective residence within one year of approval (Article 48 of the Migration Law). And one of the routes to permanent residence requires more than five years in one of the resident classes plus effective residence at the time of application (Article 49). So the residencia de inmobiliaria can be a start, but only if you actually live in Cuba for the greater part of the year.
The route to a Cuban passport
The Citizenship Law governs naturalisation in Article 36. You need:
Because provisional residence comes first, the shortest standard path is up to one year of provisional residence followed by five years as a permanent resident, about six years in all. If you reach permanent residence through the Article 49 route described in the Migration Law, add more than five years with another resident class before that. The Foreigners Law also lists, in Article 22, grounds on which foreigners can apply for permanent residence, for example assets abroad or at a Cuban bank, or capital for business and investment. How the authorities will weigh these grounds in practice will only become clear once the law is in force. How Cuba compares with countries where naturalisation is faster is shown in our overview of second passports through naturalisation in Latin America.
If you want to move: what actually changes
For most people considering a move, the new law changes little about the starting position. It is more orderly than the 1976 law and brings together in one decree procedures that were previously scattered across resolutions. Residence through property, however, remains tied to state projects, runs through the Tourism Ministry and ends when the property goes.
If you are considering a residencia de inmobiliaria, get three things in writing before you pay anything: that the property belongs to a complex operated by a state entity and approved for this class, who will file the application on your behalf, and what happens to your residence if the operator does not renew the lease. How property purchases by foreigners work in the region in general, and where the risks lie, is covered in our article on buying property in Latin America.
If you are looking for the Caribbean and are flexible, you will find countries with simpler routes. Our article moving to the Caribbean: the 5 best destinations gives an honest comparison, and the page on residency options in Latin America gives an overview of all the countries we cover.
And tax at home?
If you live in Cuba but still have income or a home in your country of origin, you need to know whether a double tax treaty helps. Some countries have a treaty with Cuba and many do not, so the answer depends entirely on where you come from:
How Cuba itself taxes residents is on our country page. The short version: if you are planning a move to Cuba, you first need clarity on the new residence law, then on tax, and how the authorities apply the new rules will only become clear in practice once they are in force.
Carpe Diem. Life is short and fleeting. One shot. Make it count.