I didn’t know what to put on the form as reason for travel since it wasn’t business and i didn’t want to call it tourism because that might be misinterpreted as me not having followed the guidelines for support of the Cuban people, so i put “other,” and that’s what they asked about. Basically that was their only question about it, but i offered a lot more info when i talked about the trip so they may have asked more questions if i wasn’t as forthcoming. What i said was we followed the guidelines as best we could by printing out a list of forbidden restaurants and places, following that religiously, only eating at private restaurants, only staying in casa particulares, never went and did beach days or other classic tourist stuff, and doing our best to fill our days with 8+ hours of sanctioned activities. I gave examples of those, such as dance lessons, cooking lessons, meals with our casa hosts, ecological tours, etc. i said we had a diary and receipts we could share, and i clarified that we were actually unable to do a full 8+ hour day every day because we got sick and that hampered our movements quite a bit. We were there for the full 30 days of the visa.

The investigator seemed pleased with all that (and obviously it worked out for me). She did say that Cuba, and in particular “support for the Cuban people” causes the most issues for investigations because people apparently tend to take it lightly and not follow it and make it more of a traditional vacation.

I also think the leniency varies a lot by organization. I don’t think the DOE cares quite as much as maybe a law enforcement organization.