New U.S. Cuba Travel Rules Close Off Meetings and Educational Trips

Travellers in the United States planning a Cuba trip face a narrower set of permitted reasons to go. On 30 September 2026, the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) amended the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, removing an authorisation for professional meetings and cutting back on educational travel as part of what the administration calls a maximum pressure policy.

General tourism to Cuba has long been off limits for U.S. travellers. What has changed is how many of the previously available authorised categories and financial workarounds remain open.

Key facts

• 30 September 2026: OFAC's amendment to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations took effect.
• General licences for professional meetings and conferences and for people-to-people educational travel were eliminated.
• Most travel general licences now also bar indirect financial transactions with entities on the Cuba Restricted List.
• Authorisations for "U-Turn" transactions and for bank accounts held for Cuban independent private entrepreneurs were removed.
• Remaining authorised educational travel must be sponsored and chaperoned by an organisation under U.S. jurisdiction.

What is changing?

OFAC's amendment did several things at once. It added a prohibition on indirect financial transactions with entities on the Cuba Restricted List and removed the authorisation for "U-Turn" transactions. It also removed an authorisation covering bank accounts held for Cuban independent private entrepreneurs and narrowed certain travel-related authorisations.

OFAC said persons subject to U.S. jurisdiction are no longer authorised to attend or organise professional meetings or conferences in Cuba. That affects academics, trade groups and industry professionals who had relied on that general licence. A cigar trade publication noted that the change directly affects U.S. cigar professionals travelling to the island.

Professional research remains listed alongside professional meetings within a single regulatory section, so anyone in that field should read the amended text closely.

What happened to educational travel?

For years, people-to-people educational trips were the most common legal route for ordinary Americans. The first Trump administration banned them in 2019, along with cruise stops and organised tour groups. The September 2026 rule returns to that restrictive posture.

Under the change, the general licences for people-to-people educational travel and professional meetings were eliminated. Educational travel that remains authorised must be sponsored and chaperoned by an organisation subject to U.S. jurisdiction, and purely tourist-oriented activities are prohibited.

Why do the accommodation and restricted lists matter?

The Cuba Restricted List names entities controlled by, or acting for, the Cuban military, intelligence or security services. One analysis puts the list at 247 entities, spanning sectors including tourism and real estate. Until 30 September the old rule barred only direct transactions with those entities; most travel general licences now exclude indirect transactions too. A middleman, tour package or booking platform could therefore put a traveller in violation even if no listed company was paid directly.

Separately, travellers may not stay at, pay for or reserve properties on the Cuba Prohibited Accommodations List.

What this means for travellers

• U.S. travellers who relied on professional meetings or conferences as their authorised reason for visiting Cuba no longer have that general licence.
• Anyone booking educational travel should confirm the trip is sponsored and chaperoned by a U.S.-jurisdiction organisation and is not tourist-oriented.
• Check bookings against the Cuba Restricted List and the Cuba Prohibited Accommodations List before paying, since indirect payments now matter as well as direct ones.

The September rule implements National Security Presidential Memorandum 5, which the President reissued on 30 June 2025. It sits alongside a separate sanctions programme under Executive Order 14404, which took effect on 1 May 2026 and runs parallel to the older regulations.