Cuban Migration to the US: Adjustment Act, Parole, and Asylum

Cuban immigration to the United States still runs through the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966, which lets a Cuban national who was lawfully admitted or paroled after January 1, 1959, apply for a green card after one year of physical presence.¹ What has changed, and changed sharply in the last two years, is how a Cuban actually gets into the country to trigger that benefit. The CHNV parole process is terminated, CBP One no longer schedules border appointments, family reunification parole is suspended in litigation, and the wet foot/dry foot policy ended back in 2017. The law is intact; the doors around it have narrowed.

The Cuban Adjustment Act and Who Qualifies

Congress passed the Cuban Adjustment Act (CAA) on November 2, 1966. Any native or citizen of Cuba who has been inspected and admitted or paroled into the United States after January 1, 1959, can apply for lawful permanent residence.² No other country’s nationals have a comparable statute.

The physical presence requirement is one year, reduced from the original two by the Refugee Act of 1980.¹ Eligibility also extends to the non-Cuban spouse and unmarried children of the principal applicant, as long as they are physically present in the United States.

A Cuban national does not need to apply for asylum or prove persecution to qualify. The CAA is a self-contained path to permanent residence, separate from the refugee and asylum systems. The threshold that matters is having been “inspected and admitted or paroled” by an immigration officer. Someone who entered without any inspection does not qualify, which is why the manner of entry has always been central.

How to Adjust Status Under the CAA

Eligible Cuban nationals file Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status, with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).¹ The filing fee is $1,440 for paper submissions and $1,375 online, with biometric services bundled into that total.³ USCIS does not offer payment plans, though fee waivers exist in limited circumstances for applicants who can demonstrate an inability to pay.

The 30-Month Rollback

When USCIS approves a CAA application, it sets the official date of permanent residence at 30 months before the filing date or the date of the applicant’s last arrival, whichever is later.² That backdating starts the five-year naturalization clock earlier than it would for most other green card holders, so a Cuban who files shortly after completing one year of presence can shave years off the wait for citizenship.⁴

Inadmissibility and Waivers

CAA applicants must still clear the general admissibility requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act, but with three important exemptions. Cuban nationals adjusting under the CAA are exempt from the public charge ground of inadmissibility, the labor certification requirement, and the immigrant documentation requirement.¹ The public charge exemption matters in practice, because it removes a hurdle that blocks many other green card applicants.

All other inadmissibility grounds still apply, including those based on criminal convictions, security concerns, health issues, fraud or misrepresentation, and prior immigration violations. An applicant who triggers one of those grounds can seek a waiver by filing Form I-601, Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility.⁵ Waivers are discretionary. The applicant carries the burden of showing why USCIS should overlook the disqualifying conduct, and criminal or fraud waivers often require demonstrating extreme hardship to a qualifying U.S. citizen or permanent resident relative.

Parole Programs: What Ended and What Is in Limbo

Over the past two decades, the federal government has used its humanitarian parole authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act to create several programs specifically benefiting Cuban nationals. That authority lets the Secretary of Homeland Security grant temporary entry on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.⁶ Parole is not an admission in the traditional sense. It is a temporary permission to be present, and it can be revoked. That fragility has become the defining feature of the current landscape.

CHNV Parole (Terminated)

Starting in 2022, the Biden administration created parole processes for nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV). A U.S.-based supporter filed Form I-134A on behalf of the Cuban beneficiary, who had to be outside the United States. If approved, the beneficiary flew to the U.S. and was paroled in for up to two years, with eligibility to apply for employment authorization.⁷

The CHNV parole process was terminated effective March 25, 2025. A federal district court initially blocked parts of the termination, but the Supreme Court lifted that injunction on May 30, 2025, allowing DHS to terminate parole for existing CHNV beneficiaries and revoke their employment authorization.⁸ Affected individuals received termination notices through their myUSCIS accounts.

Timing is the key issue for anyone paroled through CHNV. The CAA requires only that the applicant was paroled at some point after January 1, 1959, and has completed one year of physical presence. Someone who filed Form I-485 before their parole was terminated may still have a viable adjustment application. Someone who had not yet filed is in a much more precarious position.

Cuban Family Reunification Parole (Suspended)

The Cuban Family Reunification Parole (CFRP) program, created in 2007, works differently from CHNV. It lets U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents who have already filed and received approval of a family-based immigrant petition (Form I-130) for a Cuban relative request parole for that relative rather than waiting years for an immigrant visa number to become available.⁹ The petitioner must also have received an invitation from the Department of State’s National Visa Center to participate.

DHS published a Federal Register notice on December 15, 2025, terminating the CFRP along with other family reunification parole programs, with parole for existing beneficiaries set to end on January 14, 2026.¹⁰ On January 24, 2026, a federal district court in Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction staying parts of that termination. Under the court order, parole termination notices sent to individuals already in the United States under the program are not currently in effect, and those who filed an I-485 adjustment application before December 15, 2025, are protected while that application remains pending.⁹ The litigation is ongoing, and the program’s future remains uncertain.

CBP One Appointments (Ended)

Under the Biden administration, the CBP One mobile application let Cuban nationals and others schedule appointments at southern border ports of entry without prior travel authorization. Individuals in Central or Northern Mexico could request an appointment, present themselves for inspection, and often receive a grant of parole that would later satisfy the CAA’s entry requirement.

On January 20, 2025, CBP updated its systems to stop accepting new appointment requests from inadmissible noncitizens at the southwest border, and all outstanding appointments were canceled. Cubans who had already been paroled in through CBP One and met the one-year physical presence requirement may still be eligible to adjust, but the app is no longer a route for new arrivals.

Asylum for Cubans Who Cannot Use the CAA

Asylum is a separate legal pathway with its own rules. An applicant must demonstrate past persecution or a well-founded fear of future persecution based on one of five protected grounds: race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.¹¹ The burden falls entirely on the applicant to establish that connection.

Asylum can be pursued affirmatively, by filing with USCIS before any enforcement action, or defensively, as a claim raised before an immigration judge in removal proceedings. For Cubans who arrived through a parole program, asylum has historically been unnecessary, because the CAA offered a simpler, faster route to permanent residence without requiring proof of persecution. For those who entered without inspection, or whose parole was terminated before they could adjust, asylum or another form of relief in removal proceedings may be the only remaining option.

Asylum cases are lengthy and uncertain. Immigration court backlogs stretch years in many jurisdictions, and the evidentiary standard, while not impossible, requires detailed documentation of country conditions and the applicant’s specific circumstances. Working with an experienced immigration attorney is close to essential.

Where Cuban Nationals Stand Now

The Cuban Adjustment Act has not been repealed or amended. It remains available to any Cuban national who was inspected and admitted or paroled after January 1, 1959, and who has completed one year of physical presence.¹ The law’s power depends on getting lawfully into the country in the first place, and that is where the landscape has narrowed.

CHNV is terminated. CBP One no longer schedules border appointments. CFRP is suspended, with existing parolees in legal limbo pending litigation. What remains for Cubans still outside the United States are standard immigrant visa processing through U.S. consulates, family-based petitions filed by qualifying U.S. citizen or permanent resident relatives, and asylum for those who can establish a protected-ground claim. A Cuban national outside the country without a family-based petition or another basis for a visa has significantly fewer options than existed even two years ago.

If you are already in the United States and were paroled under any of the now-terminated or suspended programs, the critical question is timing. If you completed one year of physical presence and filed Form I-485 before your parole was revoked, you should still have a valid CAA adjustment application, because the statute requires only that you were paroled at some point and met the presence requirement at the time of filing. If you have not yet filed, consult an immigration attorney immediately to evaluate what options remain.

1
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Green Card for a Cuban Native or Citizen
2
GovInfo. Public Law 89-732 – Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966
3
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status
4
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Alert – Effective LPR Date
5
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. I-601, Application for Waiver of Grounds of Inadmissibility
6
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 3 Part F Chapter 1 – Purpose and Background
7
Congressional Research Service. Immigration Parole
8
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Supreme Court Stay of CHNV Preliminary Injunction
9
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program
10
Federal Register. Termination of Family Reunification Parole Processes for Colombians, Cubans, Ecuadorians, Guatemalans, Haitians, Hondurans, and Salvadorans
11
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. RAIO Lesson Plan – Nexus and the Protected Grounds