Banking as a Foreigner
What the migration instruments show is that a Cuban bank account is not optional for anyone settling here: it is a condition of the status. A provisional resident must hold a bank account in the country operated regularly, among the seven things that make up suitable conduct and social insertion. An applicant for permanent residence must place a non-refundable thousand-dollar guarantee deposit at a Cuban bank branch, for themselves and for each accompanying foreigner. An applicant relying on wealth held abroad must show the availability of an account in Cuba of not less than six figures. And an account operated regularly is one of the acts that can establish effective migratory residence for someone short of the day count. What the instruments do not say is how a foreigner opens one, and we did not read the Banco Central de Cuba's rules.
At a glance
- Cuban bank account
- A condition of provisional residence
- Guarantee deposit
- USD 1 000, non-refundable, per person
Decreto 136/2025 art. 158(c) writes it as "mil (1000) dólares estadounidenses, euros o moneda libremente convertible", so the currency is not fixed to dollars.
- Beneficiary of the deposit
- The Fund for Migration Emergencies
Stated for the real-estate resident; the permanent-residence article calls it a guarantee deposit without naming a beneficiary.
- Cuban account where the patrimony is abroad
- Not less than six figures
- Bank statements required
- Two years of cash flow
- Account-opening rules for foreigners
- Not read
Requirements
- A provisional resident must hold a bank account in Cuba operated regularly
- An applicant for permanent residence must deposit USD 1 000, or the same in euros or freely convertible currency, at a branch in Cuba, non-refundable, for themselves and each accompanying foreigner
- An applicant relying on patrimony held abroad must show a Cuban account of not less than six figures
- Two years of cash flow on the accounts where the application rests on patrimony
In detail
The account is a migration requirement before it is a convenience
Four separate provisions put a Cuban bank account inside the residence process. A provisional resident must hold one and operate it regularly. A permanent residence applicant pays a non-refundable thousand dollars into a Cuban branch, per person including each accompanying foreigner. An applicant relying on money held abroad must additionally show an account available in Cuba of not less than six figures. And where someone falls short of the presence test for effective migratory residence, a regularly operated Cuban account is one of the things they can offer instead. Someone who assumed they could keep their money offshore and visit is reading the wrong country.
The deposit is not a bond you get back
The regulation describes it twice and the wording differs in a way worth noticing. For permanent residence it is a guarantee deposit, expressly non-refundable, evidencing economic solvency. For real-estate residence it is a payment in favour of the Fund for Financial Allocation for migration emergencies - the fund the migration law sets up. Either way a family of four is paying four thousand dollars that does not come back, before any decision is taken.
What we did not read
No rule of the Banco Central de Cuba on opening or operating an account is cited here, because none was read. The Gaceta indexes several: Resolución 125 of 2025 approving the rules for operating accounts denominated in foreign currency, which its own record marks as repealed, and Resolución 100 of 2026 on foreign accounts for joint ventures and national investors. Neither was opened. Nothing on this page says what documents a foreigner needs at a branch, what currencies an account may be held in, or whether a non-resident may open one at all.
Country-level policy
Cuba keeps dual nationality and denies it effect. Acquiring another citizenship does not cost a Cuban theirs - the Constitution says so and the citizenship law repeats it - but a Cuban in the national territory is governed by that status alone and may not make use of a foreign citizenship. Acts done in Cuba under a foreign nationality are void, and the law adds that no annulment process is needed to make them so. A Cuban must identify as Cuban on entering, staying, transiting and leaving, and in legal acts done in Cuba or before a Cuban consulate. The practical shape is that a dual national travels to Cuba on a Cuban passport, and the consular protection of the other state is not available to them there.
On 5 May 2026 the Gaceta Oficial published, in a single ordinary edition, three laws and three subordinate instruments that replace Cuban migration, foreigners and citizenship law entirely: Ley 171 de Migración, Ley 172 de Ciudadanía, Ley 173 de Extranjería, their two regulations and the Citizenship Register regulation. Every one of them states that it enters into force one hundred and eighty days after publication, which is 1 November 2026. Until that day the law in force is Ley 1312 of 1976 as amended, Ley 1313 of 1976 and Decreto-Ley 352 of 2017, all of which the new laws repeal. This is not an inference: a decree-law of April 2026 says in its own recitals that Ley 1312 is still in application and that Ley 171's commencement is a hundred and eighty days away, which is why it had to legislate separately.
Cuba publishes in a single official gazette and an instrument carries the gazette's identifier as part of its name: GOC-2026-290-O39 is the Migration Law, and the O39 is edition thirty-nine of the ordinary series. There are three series. An edición ordinaria is the regular run; an edición extraordinaria is used when something cannot wait, and the two series number separately, so Ordinaria 39 and Extraordinaria 60 both appeared on 5 May 2026. The third series is what makes consolidated Cuban law readable at all: an edición especial reprints a single instrument anotada y concordada, with the amendments worked in and a footnote under each amended article naming the instrument that changed it. That is where a consolidation date comes from here - the day the special edition was published - and never from the name of the edition.
Cuban migration law has a concept with no equivalent in the other countries covered here, and almost every rule about foreigners touches it. Effective migratory residence is the condition of having accumulated, over the preceding year, most of your time in the national territory; the migration directorate determines it on its own motion at more than a hundred and eighty natural days. Someone short of that can apply to have it recognised instead, on more than a hundred and twenty days of physical presence plus other acts showing an intention to live there - a Cuban spouse, paid work, an investment, a home, a regularly operated Cuban bank account, tax compliance. It decides whether a Cuban spouse can support a residence application, whether five years of residence count towards permanent residence, whether permanent residence survives, and who the character references for naturalisation may be.
Exceptions by origin
No exceptions recorded
Nothing we have read treats any nationality differently for this topic. The rule above applies to everyone.
What the law says
«tener una fuente de ingresos financieros lícita que le permita sostener sus gastos promedios de residencia en el país; d) poseer una cuenta bancaria en el país que opere con regularidad; e) poseer seguro médico contratado;»Our translation - not official
have a lawful source of financial income allowing them to meet their average costs of residing in the country; d) hold a bank account in the country operated regularly; e) hold contracted medical insurance;
About this source
Cuba's single official gazette, run by the Ministry of Justice. An instrument's identity includes its gazette reference - Ley 171/2024 is GOC-2026-290-O39 - and there is no competing publisher of record. Three series: ordinaria, the regular run; extraordinaria, numbered separately and used for what must take effect on publication, so Ordinaria 39 and Extraordinaria 60 share the date 5 May 2026; and especial, which reprints a single instrument anotada y concordada with every amendment worked in and a footnote under each amended article naming the instrument that changed it. The special editions are the only consolidated Cuban law there is, and they are good: each states in its opening note the decree-law that ordered it and lists every amendment incorporated.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its online archive begins in 1990, which for migration means the law actually in force until 1 November 2026 - Ley 1312 of 1976, Ley 1313 of 1976 and the decrees-law 302 of 2012 and 327 of 2015 - cannot be read at the publisher of record while the laws replacing them can. Its own migration keyword index lists nothing earlier than 1999. It cannot be cited for consolidated law outside the especial series: an ordinaria or extraordinaria edition prints acts as made, and an amending decree-law there amends by instruction rather than by reprinting. A consolidation date must come from the masthead of the special edition and never from the name of the law or from the last amendment incorporated. Its PDFs break words across lines with a hyphen that survives into any verbatim quotation, and its summary pages are not always reliable - the customs special edition's contents page names the instrument Decreto-Ley 22/2021 while the decree printed two pages later is dated 24 November 2020. Nothing here is available through the extraction service in usable form; every reading was taken with pdftotext.
We re-read it every 21 days. More about this source
«realizar un depósito en garantía en una sucursal bancaria de la República de Cuba, ascendente a mil (1000) dólares estadounidenses, euros o moneda libremente con- vertible, no reembolsable, por el solicitante y cada uno de sus acompañantes extran- jeros, como evidencia de que cuenta con solvencia económica»Our translation - not official
make a non-refundable guarantee deposit at a bank branch in the Republic of Cuba amounting to one thousand (1000) United States dollars, euros or freely convertible currency, by the applicant and each of their accompanying foreigners, as evidence that they have economic means
Words broken across a line in the Gaceta's PDF keep their hyphen here. The quotation is not tidied.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Cuba's single official gazette, run by the Ministry of Justice. An instrument's identity includes its gazette reference - Ley 171/2024 is GOC-2026-290-O39 - and there is no competing publisher of record. Three series: ordinaria, the regular run; extraordinaria, numbered separately and used for what must take effect on publication, so Ordinaria 39 and Extraordinaria 60 share the date 5 May 2026; and especial, which reprints a single instrument anotada y concordada with every amendment worked in and a footnote under each amended article naming the instrument that changed it. The special editions are the only consolidated Cuban law there is, and they are good: each states in its opening note the decree-law that ordered it and lists every amendment incorporated.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its online archive begins in 1990, which for migration means the law actually in force until 1 November 2026 - Ley 1312 of 1976, Ley 1313 of 1976 and the decrees-law 302 of 2012 and 327 of 2015 - cannot be read at the publisher of record while the laws replacing them can. Its own migration keyword index lists nothing earlier than 1999. It cannot be cited for consolidated law outside the especial series: an ordinaria or extraordinaria edition prints acts as made, and an amending decree-law there amends by instruction rather than by reprinting. A consolidation date must come from the masthead of the special edition and never from the name of the law or from the last amendment incorporated. Its PDFs break words across lines with a hyphen that survives into any verbatim quotation, and its summary pages are not always reliable - the customs special edition's contents page names the instrument Decreto-Ley 22/2021 while the decree printed two pages later is dated 24 November 2020. Nothing here is available through the extraction service in usable form; every reading was taken with pdftotext.
We re-read it every 21 days. More about this source
«Para acompañar la solicitud amparada en el Artículo 49, inciso e) de la Ley de Migración, el extranjero interesado debe presentar las certificación expedida por una sucursal bancaria donde posea sus cuentas, así como el flujo de caja de estas en el período de dos años anteriores a la solicitud. 2. Cuando las cuentas bancarias sean en el extranjero, el solicitante debe acreditar la disponibilidad de una cuenta en el país con un monto no inferior a seis dígitos.»Our translation - not official
To accompany an application under article 49(e) of the Migration Law the foreigner concerned must present the certificate issued by a bank branch where they hold their accounts, together with the cash flow of those accounts for the two years preceding the application. Where the bank accounts are abroad, the applicant must show the availability of an account in the country of not less than six figures.
Words broken across a line in the Gaceta's PDF keep their hyphen here. The quotation is not tidied.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Cuba's single official gazette, run by the Ministry of Justice. An instrument's identity includes its gazette reference - Ley 171/2024 is GOC-2026-290-O39 - and there is no competing publisher of record. Three series: ordinaria, the regular run; extraordinaria, numbered separately and used for what must take effect on publication, so Ordinaria 39 and Extraordinaria 60 share the date 5 May 2026; and especial, which reprints a single instrument anotada y concordada with every amendment worked in and a footnote under each amended article naming the instrument that changed it. The special editions are the only consolidated Cuban law there is, and they are good: each states in its opening note the decree-law that ordered it and lists every amendment incorporated.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its online archive begins in 1990, which for migration means the law actually in force until 1 November 2026 - Ley 1312 of 1976, Ley 1313 of 1976 and the decrees-law 302 of 2012 and 327 of 2015 - cannot be read at the publisher of record while the laws replacing them can. Its own migration keyword index lists nothing earlier than 1999. It cannot be cited for consolidated law outside the especial series: an ordinaria or extraordinaria edition prints acts as made, and an amending decree-law there amends by instruction rather than by reprinting. A consolidation date must come from the masthead of the special edition and never from the name of the law or from the last amendment incorporated. Its PDFs break words across lines with a hyphen that survives into any verbatim quotation, and its summary pages are not always reliable - the customs special edition's contents page names the instrument Decreto-Ley 22/2021 while the decree printed two pages later is dated 24 November 2020. Nothing here is available through the extraction service in usable form; every reading was taken with pdftotext.
We re-read it every 21 days. More about this source
«demostrar solvencia económica mediante el ingreso en una sucursal bancaria en el territorio nacional de la suma de mil (1000) dólares estadounidenses, euros o mo- neda libremente convertible por cada residente a favor del Fondo de Destinación Financiera para emergencias migratorias.»Our translation - not official
demonstrate economic solvency by paying into a bank branch in the national territory the sum of one thousand (1000) United States dollars, euros or freely convertible currency per resident in favour of the Fund for Financial Allocation for migration emergencies.
The real-estate resident's version of the same deposit, and the only place the instruments name where the money goes. Words broken across a line in the Gaceta's PDF keep their hyphen here. The quotation is not tidied.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Cuba's single official gazette, run by the Ministry of Justice. An instrument's identity includes its gazette reference - Ley 171/2024 is GOC-2026-290-O39 - and there is no competing publisher of record. Three series: ordinaria, the regular run; extraordinaria, numbered separately and used for what must take effect on publication, so Ordinaria 39 and Extraordinaria 60 share the date 5 May 2026; and especial, which reprints a single instrument anotada y concordada with every amendment worked in and a footnote under each amended article naming the instrument that changed it. The special editions are the only consolidated Cuban law there is, and they are good: each states in its opening note the decree-law that ordered it and lists every amendment incorporated.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its online archive begins in 1990, which for migration means the law actually in force until 1 November 2026 - Ley 1312 of 1976, Ley 1313 of 1976 and the decrees-law 302 of 2012 and 327 of 2015 - cannot be read at the publisher of record while the laws replacing them can. Its own migration keyword index lists nothing earlier than 1999. It cannot be cited for consolidated law outside the especial series: an ordinaria or extraordinaria edition prints acts as made, and an amending decree-law there amends by instruction rather than by reprinting. A consolidation date must come from the masthead of the special edition and never from the name of the law or from the last amendment incorporated. Its PDFs break words across lines with a hyphen that survives into any verbatim quotation, and its summary pages are not always reliable - the customs special edition's contents page names the instrument Decreto-Ley 22/2021 while the decree printed two pages later is dated 24 November 2020. Nothing here is available through the extraction service in usable form; every reading was taken with pdftotext.
We re-read it every 21 days. More about this source
«disponer de cuentas bancarias en la República de Cuba que opere con regularidad;»Our translation - not official
holding bank accounts in the Republic of Cuba operated regularly;
One of the acts that can establish effective migratory residence for a person who has not accumulated a hundred and eighty days.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
Cuba's single official gazette, run by the Ministry of Justice. An instrument's identity includes its gazette reference - Ley 171/2024 is GOC-2026-290-O39 - and there is no competing publisher of record. Three series: ordinaria, the regular run; extraordinaria, numbered separately and used for what must take effect on publication, so Ordinaria 39 and Extraordinaria 60 share the date 5 May 2026; and especial, which reprints a single instrument anotada y concordada with every amendment worked in and a footnote under each amended article naming the instrument that changed it. The special editions are the only consolidated Cuban law there is, and they are good: each states in its opening note the decree-law that ordered it and lists every amendment incorporated.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its online archive begins in 1990, which for migration means the law actually in force until 1 November 2026 - Ley 1312 of 1976, Ley 1313 of 1976 and the decrees-law 302 of 2012 and 327 of 2015 - cannot be read at the publisher of record while the laws replacing them can. Its own migration keyword index lists nothing earlier than 1999. It cannot be cited for consolidated law outside the especial series: an ordinaria or extraordinaria edition prints acts as made, and an amending decree-law there amends by instruction rather than by reprinting. A consolidation date must come from the masthead of the special edition and never from the name of the law or from the last amendment incorporated. Its PDFs break words across lines with a hyphen that survives into any verbatim quotation, and its summary pages are not always reliable - the customs special edition's contents page names the instrument Decreto-Ley 22/2021 while the decree printed two pages later is dated 24 November 2020. Nothing here is available through the extraction service in usable form; every reading was taken with pdftotext.
We re-read it every 21 days. More about this source
«los extranjeros que dispongan de un importante patrimonio en el exterior o en una institución bancaria cubana.»Our translation - not official
foreigners who have a significant patrimony abroad or in a Cuban banking institution.
About this source
Cuba's single official gazette, run by the Ministry of Justice. An instrument's identity includes its gazette reference - Ley 171/2024 is GOC-2026-290-O39 - and there is no competing publisher of record. Three series: ordinaria, the regular run; extraordinaria, numbered separately and used for what must take effect on publication, so Ordinaria 39 and Extraordinaria 60 share the date 5 May 2026; and especial, which reprints a single instrument anotada y concordada with every amendment worked in and a footnote under each amended article naming the instrument that changed it. The special editions are the only consolidated Cuban law there is, and they are good: each states in its opening note the decree-law that ordered it and lists every amendment incorporated.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its online archive begins in 1990, which for migration means the law actually in force until 1 November 2026 - Ley 1312 of 1976, Ley 1313 of 1976 and the decrees-law 302 of 2012 and 327 of 2015 - cannot be read at the publisher of record while the laws replacing them can. Its own migration keyword index lists nothing earlier than 1999. It cannot be cited for consolidated law outside the especial series: an ordinaria or extraordinaria edition prints acts as made, and an amending decree-law there amends by instruction rather than by reprinting. A consolidation date must come from the masthead of the special edition and never from the name of the law or from the last amendment incorporated. Its PDFs break words across lines with a hyphen that survives into any verbatim quotation, and its summary pages are not always reliable - the customs special edition's contents page names the instrument Decreto-Ley 22/2021 while the decree printed two pages later is dated 24 November 2020. Nothing here is available through the extraction service in usable form; every reading was taken with pdftotext.
We re-read it every 21 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Everything here is taken from the migration instruments. We did not read any Banco Central de Cuba resolution, so this page states what the law requires you to have and not how to get it.
The six-figure requirement is a number of digits. The regulation does not name a currency and neither do we.
The migration instruments come into force on 1 November 2026.
- issuesGaceta Oficial de la República de Cuba, Edición Ordinaria No. 39 de 5 de mayo de 2026
Gaceta Oficial de la República de Cuba - Ministerio de Justicia
About this source
Cuba's single official gazette, run by the Ministry of Justice. An instrument's identity includes its gazette reference - Ley 171/2024 is GOC-2026-290-O39 - and there is no competing publisher of record. Three series: ordinaria, the regular run; extraordinaria, numbered separately and used for what must take effect on publication, so Ordinaria 39 and Extraordinaria 60 share the date 5 May 2026; and especial, which reprints a single instrument anotada y concordada with every amendment worked in and a footnote under each amended article naming the instrument that changed it. The special editions are the only consolidated Cuban law there is, and they are good: each states in its opening note the decree-law that ordered it and lists every amendment incorporated.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: Its online archive begins in 1990, which for migration means the law actually in force until 1 November 2026 - Ley 1312 of 1976, Ley 1313 of 1976 and the decrees-law 302 of 2012 and 327 of 2015 - cannot be read at the publisher of record while the laws replacing them can. Its own migration keyword index lists nothing earlier than 1999. It cannot be cited for consolidated law outside the especial series: an ordinaria or extraordinaria edition prints acts as made, and an amending decree-law there amends by instruction rather than by reprinting. A consolidation date must come from the masthead of the special edition and never from the name of the law or from the last amendment incorporated. Its PDFs break words across lines with a hyphen that survives into any verbatim quotation, and its summary pages are not always reliable - the customs special edition's contents page names the instrument Decreto-Ley 22/2021 while the decree printed two pages later is dated 24 November 2020. Nothing here is available through the extraction service in usable form; every reading was taken with pdftotext.
We re-read it every 21 days. More about this source