Starting today, Cubans who choose the Cuban Family Reunification Program (CFRP), must submit to the Interests Section in Havana United States (USINT) an application for travel document (model I-130, costing $ 360), plus the immigrant visa petition (form I-131, worth $ 420). Before the CFRP was at no cost, and defrayed by the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) through income generated by other immigration benefits. But since this February 17, and "to bring cases of CFRP closer to most other parole requests made to persons outside the territory of the United States" costs for Cubans who want family reunification in the US should spend no less than $ 780 in total, about 20 thousand Cuban pesos. However, as announced by the website of the US Interests Section, "applicants may request a fee waiver” through another model. The measure was announced from the same December 18, 2014, a day after the United States and Cuba announced their intentions to have a diplomatic approach. At that time it was set on February 17, two months for those who had been reported as eligible for this program submit their completed documents to the National Visa Center (NVC). Otherwise, they should expect...

The second joint venture "for the development of real estate related to golf courses" will be created soon in Cuba between the Chinese company Beijing Enterprises Holdings Limited and Cuban extrahotel group Palmares, the Director of Business of the Ministry of Tourism (MINTUR) Jose Reinaldo Daniel Alonso, told Cuban News Agency (AIN by its Spanish acronym). The project "will be developed in the Bellomonte area, east of Havana," the Tourism Ministry official told AIN, and according to the note, "in the current semester we have made advances in parallel in the technical preparation of two projects: one located in the El Salado, west of the capital, and another in Punta Colorada, in Pinar del Rio, "both involving Spanish companies along Palmares. The note also states that the MINTUR today prioritizes investments in "second line of beach and in areas without the necessary infrastructure," and cites examples of Santa Lucia beach, north of the province of Camagüey, and Covarrubias, in Las Tunas. Completion of the first joint venture for real estate related to golf courses in the country was announced in February this year by the Minister of Tourism, Manuel Marrero, meeting with delegates to the Twentieth Congress of the Cuban...

A couple of firsts mark the 64th International Fishing Tournament of Ernest Hemingway that began Monday in Havana: finally, in more than two decades, a Cuban team is participating in the tournament; and after 12 years of vetoes, a group of Americans obtained the licenses from their government to compete. The Cuban team is made up by three brothers who fish for family tradition. The Santy, who are accompanied by a couple of friends, have a boat that goes out daily to the sea and is responsible for providing fresh fish to a restaurant specializing in Japanese food; and so, because they have "experience in the fishing area, and possibility of fresh bait ... is that we think we will get a good place," they said casually to OnCuba. Instead, the Americans, a group of merry and mature men, tell us in the voice of Antonio Zamora-Cuban-American lawyer who loves the sea that “the last license was given to Americans to participate in the tournament was in 2002 or 2003 when 20 or 30 American ships participated. But that stopped with the Bush administration. " Of the 130 American fishermen approved, only 13 attend the tournament due to the inability...

While on the island and beyond many people are saying that things “are changing “that “the thing moves " , and certainly the measures Raul Castro government endorse these expressions, the "country where we are going ," is not yet all clear . On Thursday, the head of the Permanent Commission for Implementation and Development, Marino Murillo Jorge, submitted to the Council of Ministers a report on compliance with the Guidelines for 2013. After a lot of information, a very interesting fact appears: Marino Murillo said "we are currently working on the proposed conceptualization of the Cuban Socialist Economic and Social Model Development, and the foundations of the long term Social Economic Development Programme of the country.” And this might be news if forget the fact that last December , before the final session of the Cuban Parliament , Murillo claimed almost exactly the same and , a year later, the " Cuban model " road map is still not known , although the guidelines are kind of a Bible for the "socialist Cuba " that " is being updated " . Only in mid- 2013, again in Parliament, we could know something about is that there will be no...

This growing up is sometimes very sad. A few hours ago Tulio Raggi died, and as Teresita Fernández , leaves behind a lot of children- many already grown up, like me, who have in their Cuban DNA the genius of his creations. From the ICAIC Animation Studios Raggi created masterpieces of animation and Cuban idiosyncrasy as “El negrito cimarrón”, “La gamita ciega” and “El paso del Yabebirí” which more than entertain or lecture us as children, became source of everyday expressions, in pure unblemished Cuban. Saying in a mourning tone "if I had my Winchester” reminding the Yabebirí hunter - is already more than just a phrase. And the fact was that Raggi , as Juan Padrón and other Cuban leaders, knew the pulse of the society in which they lived and reproduce it artistically in each of his creations. So it is with his characters, from satire, humor or reflection, reality stripped from simple codes, understandable and enjoyable. On this, Raggi said in a 2010 interview: “All (the characters) are my children. Also at the beginning of the Department, a basic tenet of its existence was the creation of a series of cartoons that were not even remotely similar...

Congas in baseball stadiums will possibly have in the future more regulations than those destined to urban environment. Today, the Cuban Baseball National Commission has just issued its Circular No. 7 of this National Series, where regulates, very specifically, that "The congas will be placed in an area of ​​the outfields stands, at a distance of 35 meters from the end of both dugouts. "It also clarifies that" in those areas, they can play throughout the game. " And if this of distances is still not clear, it specifies that "in stadiums that do not have these conditions, a dais will be enabled ", and if they can not, then the Commission rules that "otherwise they will have to play between innings.” Finally, for us to see that they are not contradictory, they argue that "It is maintained the provisions of Circular No 4 saying that the congas that do not want to occupy the outfield areas can only play between innings." The fact is that after its Circular No. 4, where it was "forbidden music generated congas, orchestras and other musical instruments like trumpets during the development of the game", exonerating the time between innings, it seems that people...

The videos dedicated to MLB pitcher Jose Ariel Contreras, in his return to the island, and the death of comedian Alvarez Guedes, both Cuban immigrants in the United States, were awarded in the Audiovisual Journalism Contest "Ania Pino in Memoriam" sponsored by Channel Havana, the Hermanos Saiz Association and the Union of Journalists of Cuba. The awards given in the category of "audiovisual materials for the web" granted to both materials were based on the "bold and respectful treatment to a current and controversial topic absent from Cuban screens (...) and the clear intention of protecting identity”. After more than a year on the web and gathering of many of the best national young journalists in its daily updates, OnCuba seems to reach a certain maturity and recognition of its contents, both outside and within the island. OnCuba, from each of its collaborators, has chosen to offer the pulse of a changing society and nation, away from the usual black and white used to speak about the Cuban reality, and has put its efforts in revealing the nuances of Cuban social project that since 2010 is living major changes. Audiovisual Journalism Contest "Ania Pino in Memoriam" held this weekend in...

The procedures and repeated money spending to get U.S. visa from Cuba may drastically decrease as the ultimate measure of U.S. Immigration Service . The document states the possibility of issuing multiple-entry visas valid for five years to Cubans visiting that nation in character of non migrant visitors. So, this allows Cubans who are granted such visas should only do once the visa process, as well as the corresponding payment of 160 CUC, which even today must be done each time the travel permit is requested. With effect from August 1 st, 2013, the rule will allow Cubans unlimited traveling to the United States for five years, but for the maximum periods that set the B-1 visa (Business Visa: 1 year) and B-2 (Tourist Visa: six months ). The researcher specializing in Cuba-US relations and Cuban former diplomat, Carlos Alzugaray, values this measure as "a positive step that approaches the situation of Cuban citizens to the ones of other countries. It eliminates discrimination that has existed so far. I wish it will be a step, however small, to progress through the path of normalization of relations. " With the arrival of Obama to the White House, the U.S. government has...

In Cuba, the new trade relations between state enterprises and private workers (self-employed) season the wide range of changes affecting the island since 2010. The restoration of one of the famous La Rampa sidewalks-all-granite and inlaid works of Cuban artists-is now also part of the progress of this economic symbiosis. We chose the sidewalks between N and O of 23rd street because we are very close to our company and we can monitor the daily works. This had not been done before with self-employed people; it is the first time we are experiencing it, says Alexis Casal, technical engineering who heads the Technical Networks, an investor group for roads belonging to the Provincial Department of Transportation in Havana. To perform the work, consisting of demolishing the entire sidewalk,  restore the masterpieces and re-melt all through the technique of granite wash, Technical Networks chose Yojane Luis Font, who has run for ten years, a granite making business inherited from his father and now employs more than 30 workers. Photo: Beatriz Verde Limón Casal said that before choosing self-employed people we seek state enterprises (a preference that is today extended-policy), but we found no one with the constructive capability to do the...

Telling Cuba’s reality is no longer the only goal of a large group of Cuban bloggers. Beginning this Sunday, July 7th, 2013, the consolidation and definition of the "Comunidad Blogosfera Cuba” penetrates the national reality as a new way of social participation. While in the Havana’s Conventions Centre the National Assembly of People's Power (ANPP by its Spanish acronym) conducted its first regular sessions, at the same time and for three days, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Centre hosted over forty bloggers from different provinces in search of concerting efforts and interest on "the shared vision of a better Cuba." Beyond blogs, opinions and personal agendas of its members, Blogosfera Cuba seeks to articulate spaces and actions, inside and outside the networks, where constant discussion and participation generate new and improved contents towards the network as well as the necessary social impact. Internet a ccess to a sector of the population, mostly journalists, makes the Cuban press gaps, the needs of expression outside the traditional boundaries and urgency of public agendas more in line with reality to be some of the core marks bloggers must assume. According to this, teachers Elaine Diaz and Rosa Miriam Elizalde dealt in their...

Paintball in Havana, a new fashion among youngs that "shot to kill" with colorful ammunition.