The three residences in Cuba
Or maybe two residences and half
In Cuba there are three kinds of residences (or maybe two and half), all bound with the historical double economy dilemma. Obviously, a stranger can have several reasons to reside in Cuba or serve determined functions to accomplish, because nobody may live in Cuba without a valid reason. That's why several migratory situations have been classified, for example, there are various tourism visas and, in the same way, various kinds of residence: temporary for working, temporary for students, permanent, for political refugees and diplomatic. Nevertheless, the most common (and requested) are the first three and in this page we will discuss and compare each of them, without forgetting to mention the others.
The temporary residence for work
It is a residence that is given to anyone who comes to Cuba to work, whether to fulfill a function as a dependent of a joint venture (and in that case the company must have more than one million dollars of turnover per year to have foreign employees), as a businessman, as an entrepreneur or as a representative of a foreign firm. Diplomats would also fall into this category, if it were not for the fact that the latter have a separate immigration status, not counting the diplomatic courtesies and immunities that benefit them. These residents may own property and services in their own name, telephone lines in freely convertible currency, be annual members of Club Habana, import a container of personal effects and acquire up to two cars, among other rights.
The drawback of this migratory status is that all these rights will be lost once the mission that originated the residence is accomplished. Any mixed company is destined to be nationalized several years after the recovery of the invested capital, this happened to most hotel chains, to the French bakery Pan de París (now Dulcinea), to the ETECSA telecom company and many others. All the employees of these companies saw the end of their residence and all of them had to sell all their belonging to the State.
Of course, not every temporary resident has an expiration date, there are also entrepreneurs of companies with totally foreign capital, for example, foreign travel agencies, which do not have an expiration date and can extend their stay at will, as long as they continue to have a tour operator representing them.
In general, temporary residents for work purposes are tourists for all purposes, but with longer stays and ephemeral rights to acquire property and services in their name. However, they have the same obligations as tourists, they have to pay medical insurance (since May 2010), they are all charged in freely convertible currency, and even their cars have a different license plate starting with the letter K. Although these plates look like they are personal, in reality none of them are private!
In addition, temporary residents for work purposes cannot rent in normal rental homes, they can only reside in their spouses' homes - if they are married - or in so-called state residences. These are state homes or residences that are intended to rent to these types of residents, clearly as you would imagine, for exorbitant prices much higher than any private home.
Residence for students
This is another form of temporary residence, which this time expires at the end of the studies and would correspond to the ½ part in the title of this article, since, as we shall see, it has many limitations that characterize it. It is received, obviously, by foreign students, either scholarship holders who study for free in Cuba through state agreements or specific scholarships or students who pay for their degrees (a university degree costs an average of 4000 dollars a year).
In the past, this migratory status was very similar to the work residency, what makes it different now are its limitations, for example, students can no longer buy a car and can also stay in student hostels or in private homes whose prices are much lower compared to the houses rented to tourists, since, declaring that they rent to a student, the tax to be paid is much lower because the profit is much lower. In addition, other services are limited and a student cannot become a member of Club Habana (reserved for diplomats and businessmen with their dependents), nor reside in the expensive residences where businessmen rent (of course, with what money? You are a student and you are not supposed to live the high life).
These limitations and others are due to the fact that, in the early 2000s, many students did business with the vehicles they bought or with their internet accounts, giving these goods and services to unauthorized persons (Cubans, tourists) in exchange for monetary compensation. The Cuban government put an end to these businesses and today students do not have even half of the rights they had before. In addition, many foreigners took out a student residency just to buy a car or because they could not obtain a worker residency since, as already mentioned, in order to have foreign employees a company must have a large annual turnover (over one million) and a certain number of Cuban personnel for each foreign employee. Therefore, obtaining residency as a foreign worker or technician is very difficult and not everyone can be an entrepreneur, because in Cuba, when we talk about investments, we talk about complete chains and large businesses.
Other kinds of residences
Also the political refugees, the religious people or other people going to Cuban hospitals for agreements between states (typically between Cuba and Venezuela), as well as other minorities, have a similar situation, with similar limitations that we don't know completely. These are isolated cases and not very common, for this, we can't list all the details for all possible residences.
The permanent residence
This is the most natural. Having a permanent residency does not mean losing a citizenship and it does not mean that we will not be able to leave Cuba anymore. It only means that, the permanent residency lasts until you want to leave and does not end with the termination of your function, being just "permanent".
Although we offer a page with a detailed description of this kind of residence, we will describe it here in a comparative way with the other residences.
The strangers who have a permanent residence are Cuban in any aspect, except for the citizenship, because Cuba give it only by birth, and not by naturalization, they have all the rights and the duties than Cubans. They will no lose their belonging if they leave Cuba, not even if they lose their residence (all this were not possible before, you could not even buy a house or a car before the legal reforms made in the year 2011). They can leave Cuba (before, for 11 months, now for 24) without losing their rights, they don't have to pay health insurance because they have medical care for free, they don't pay for study and they even receive the basic food basket. Furthermore all their economy (including the gain which is officially no longer in freely convertible currency) is in CUP (national money).
Who can apply for a permanent residence? Mainly strangers that got married with Cubans, who have adult children or any other direct family ties with Cubans or even other permanent residents. The only drawback is that you must live in the partner's domicile (or in the domicile of any relative of the partner), or introduce an evidence that you will buy a house. Each permanent resident or Cuban may have two homes, one in the city and other outside for vacations. It's very difficult that the State will sell you a house, you must buy it to an individual.
Another catch is that you must demonstrate that you have an economic solvency to live in Cuba or give evidence that you will work somewhere.
Conclusions
In one of his early speechs after taking the power, President Raúl Castro Ruz defined the double-economy as unsustainable and a single currency economy as a must have in the long term. He also announced that it will not be done in a day. Another thing that is maybe in project is to allow strangers to buy houses, but this is still a rumor, there is nothing official that asserts it.
Obviously when the economy will eventually unify, residences would also, because the main difference between them now (aside from their duration), is the use of one currency instead of the other.
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