Renewed hopes but more delays for Cubans seeking US visas
Published:Wednesday | June 1, 2022 | 9:46 AM
CIENFUEGOS, Cuba (AP) — Like many Cubans before him, Roberto De la Yglesia left most of his family behind when he made his way to the United States with only his son in 2015, hoping that he could soon bring his wife and daughters to join him.
Years later, the mechanical engineer in New Jersey and his family back in Cienfuegos, Cuba, are still waiting — with a mixture of renewed hope and scepticism — now that the Biden administration has said it will reactivate the long-stalled Family Reunification Program, which lets Cubans legally in the US bring close relatives.
“My life is on pause,” said his wife, Danmara Triana, sitting on the sofa of her house in Cienfuegos while surrounded by ageing photos of the couple's life together.
A few feet away, her 21-year-old daughter Claudia was awaiting the return from the school of 7-year-old Alice.
“My day-to-day life hangs on this, — to see my son, to see my husband,” Triana said.
The 48-year-old accountant said she repeatedly checks the website of the US Embassy in Havana for news.
The Biden administration says that roughly 20,000 applications for family reunification visas have built up since 2017.
That's when President Donald Trump effectively shut down the programme by withdrawing diplomatic personnel from Cuba in response to a spate of mysterious illnesses among diplomats that many suspected was the result of some sort of directed wave attack.
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