Country-wide policy
How to Read a Citation to the Gaceta Oficial
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.
Topics it changes
- Visiting as a tourist
- Residency on passive income
- Residency as a retiree
- Residency through work
- Residency through investment
- Residency as a student
- Residency through ancestry
- Residency through marriage
- Residency under a regional treaty
- Becoming a citizen
- When you become a tax resident
- Opening a bank account
- Access to healthcare
- Driving and licence exchange
- Bringing your belongings
What it requires
- An instrument is identified by its number, its year and the gazette reference: Ley 171/2024 (GOC-2026-290-O39)
- Ordinaria and extraordinaria editions are numbered in separate series and may share a date
- A consolidated text appears as an edición especial, marked anotada y concordada
- A special edition states, in its own opening note, the mandate it fulfils and the amendments it incorporates
- Amended articles are marked (Modificado) or (Derogado) with a footnote naming the amending instrument
At a glance
- Publisher of record
- Gaceta Oficial de la República de Cuba, Ministerio de Justicia
- Series
- Ordinaria, Extraordinaria, Especial
- Consolidated texts
- Yes, as ediciones especiales anotadas y concordadas
- Online archive begins
- 1990
- Consolidation date taken from
- The special edition's own publication date
Three series, and only one of them is consolidated law
The ordinary edition is the regular run and carries most legislation; Ley 171, Ley 172 and Ley 173 all appeared in Ordinaria 39 of 5 May 2026. The extraordinary edition is used when something is to take effect at once, and it numbers separately: Extraordinaria 60 carries the same date as that ordinary edition and contains the investor decree-law that took effect on publication. Neither of those is consolidated: an act published in them is the act as made, and an amending decree-law printed there amends by instruction rather than by reprinting. The special edition is the answer to that, and the three used here - Ley 113, Ley 109 and Decreto-Ley 22 - are all special editions.
What a concorded edition actually gives you
It is better than most consolidations in this corpus because it shows its working. Each article that has moved is marked (Modificado) or (Derogado) in its heading, and underneath it a paragraph in smaller type names the instrument that did it, its date and the gazette it appeared in. A reader can therefore see not only what the article says now but when it last changed. The edition's opening note lists every instrument incorporated and the decree-law that ordered the exercise.
Where the cut-off comes from
From the date on the masthead of the special edition, not from the name of the law and not from the date of the last amendment it incorporates. Ley 113 is dated 2012, its last incorporated amendment is from December 2025, and the concorded edition was published on 12 January 2026; the consolidation date recorded here is the last of those three, because it is the day the publisher looked. The customs tariff is a sharper case: its special edition is dated 5 October 2026, the day before this was written.
And what it cannot be cited for
The online archive begins in 1990. Nothing older can be read there, which for migration means the law actually in force in October 2026 - Ley 1312 of 1976 - is not available from the publisher of record while the law that replaces it is. The site's own keyword index for migration lists nothing before 1999. The PDFs also break words across lines with a hyphen, and that hyphen survives into any quotation taken from them, which is why some excerpts here read oddly.
What the law says
«La presente edición cumple con el mandato dispuesto en la Disposición Final Primera del Decreto-Ley 107, de 16 de abril de 2025, publicado en Edición Ordinaria 97, de 23 de diciembre de 2025, de actualizar, revisar y concordar la Ley 113 “Del Sistema Tributario”, de 23 de julio de 2012, publicada en Edición Ordinaria 53, de 21 de noviembre de 2012.»Our translation - not official
This edition fulfils the mandate laid down in the First Final Provision of Decreto-Ley 107, of 16 April 2025, published in Ordinary Edition 97, of 23 December 2025, to update, revise and concord Ley 113 "On the Tax System", of 23 July 2012, published in Ordinary Edition 53, of 21 November 2012.
A special edition says what it is and why it exists. The consolidation date recorded against it is the date of this edition, 12 January 2026.
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
«La presente edición cumple con el mandato dispuesto en la Disposición Final Primera del Decreto-Ley 132, de 19 de agosto de 2026, publicado en edición ordinaria 83, de 5 de octubre de 2026, de actualizar, revisar y concordar el Decreto-Ley 22 “Arancel de aduanas de la República de Cuba para las importaciones sin carácter comercial”, de 24 de noviembre de 2020, publicada en edición extraordinaria No. 68, de 10 de diciembre de 2020.»Our translation - not official
This edition fulfils the mandate laid down in the First Final Provision of Decreto-Ley 132, of 19 August 2026, published in ordinary edition 83, of 5 October 2026, to update, revise and concord Decreto-Ley 22 "Customs tariff of the Republic of Cuba for non-commercial imports", of 24 November 2020, published in extraordinary edition No. 68, of 10 December 2020.
Published the same day as the ordinary edition carrying the decree-law that ordered it.
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
«Artículo 23. (Derogado). Este artículo fue derogado por la Disposición Final Primera del Decreto-Ley 21, de 24 de noviembre de 2020, publicado en Edición Extraordinaria 68 de 10 de diciem- bre de 2020.»Our translation - not official
Article 23. (Repealed). This article was repealed by the First Final Provision of Decreto-Ley 21, of 24 November 2020, published in Extraordinary Edition 68 of 10 December 2020.
How a repealed article appears in a concorded edition: the number survives, the text is replaced by the marker, and the footnote names the instrument.
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
Practical notes
Every quotation on these pages was taken from a PDF downloaded from gacetaoficial.gob.cu and extracted with pdftotext rather than through the extraction service. Article numbering was checked for gaps afterwards in each instrument: Ley 171 runs 1-170, Ley 172 1-114, Ley 173 1-91, Decreto 136/2025 1-362, Decreto 137/2025 1-237, Resolución 24/2025 1-49 and the 2019 Constitution 1-229, all without a gap.
Words broken across a line in the Gaceta's PDFs keep their hyphen in the quotations here. A quotation is not tidied, and a reader comparing it with the publisher's page will find it character for character.
The summary page of the customs special edition names the instrument "Decreto-Ley 22/2021" while the decree itself, printed two pages later, is dated 24 November 2020 and entered into force on 1 January 2021.