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Citizens of visa waiver program countries who have traveled to Cuba on or after January 12, 2021 are not eligible to travel to the United States under the VWP. ESTA applications will be denied and existing ESTA approvals may also be revoked.

Although citizens of Canada who are traveling to the US with a Canadian passport do not need an ESTA, does Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism result in any limitations on Canadian citizen eligibility to enter the US after having visited Cuba?

Context: a recent DiariodeCuba report stated that Canadian visitor numbers to the island have dropped from 828,119 in 2019 to 675,975 in the same period of 2023. While a Canadian government travel alert may be one reason for the drop, I’m curious as to any impact of the US decision.

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  • Related: travel.stackexchange.com/questions/100691/…
    – user102008
    Commented Oct 25, 2023 at 16:21
  • 4
    I can think of one major reason why tourist numbers might drop after 2019 :-)
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Commented Oct 25, 2023 at 17:03
  • @JonathanReez AFAIK Cuba is bucking the trend, and not in a good way - tourist numbers to (most) other Caribbean tourist destinations have recovered to their pre-Covid 2019 levels, or even improved.
    – Traveller
    Commented Oct 25, 2023 at 18:51
  • @Traveller That depends if a larger quantity of tourists is necessarily a good thing. People in Venice, Dubrovnik, Cinque Terre, Hallstatt, and some other places, might not think so.
    – gerrit
    Commented Oct 26, 2023 at 6:26
  • @gerrit It’s likely a good thing when tourism is one of a country’s very few legal sources of foreign exchange income. I asked about Canada and a possible link to the US decision because I was interested to know if the latter affects Canadians given the closeness between the two countries. It seems very possible however that the US decision has/will affect visitor numbers from VWP countries.
    – Traveller
    Commented Oct 26, 2023 at 8:43

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Although citizens of Canada who are traveling to the US with a Canadian passport do not need an ESTA, does Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism result in any limitations on Canadian citizen eligibility to enter the US after having visited Cuba?

No. Canadian citizens don't need ESTA because they are not using the visa waiver program. The visa exemption applying to Canadian citizens is enacted separately (by regulation at 8 CFR 212.1(a)), so the statutory restrictions applying to the visa waiver program (8 USC 1187(a)(12)) do not affect it.

I recall having seen an official page from CBP or perhaps the Department of State saying as much at some point, but I can't find it just now. The closest I can come is a page from the US diplomatic mission to Canada describing the circumstances under which Canadian citizens need a US visa. The only text that would apply to a B-class visitor visa does not mention Cuba (or the other countries that are significant to the VWP):

Furthermore, Canadians who have been removed from the United States or who have a criminal record, including for driving under the influence, will need to follow a separate set of procedures to enter the country.

But this links to information about getting a waiver of inadmissibility; its not as simple as triggering a requirement to have a visa.

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