# Cuaban Lottery Winners Can Emigrate?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuaban-lottery-winners-can-emigrate/307698
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 10, 2005, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuaban-lottery-winners-can-emigrate/307698 "2005-06-10T04:42:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2005, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuaban-lottery-winners-can-emigrate/307698/1 "2005-06-10T04:42:06Z")
WTF. If you win a lottery you can come here from Cuba?
[http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/09/cuban.taxi.ap/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/06/09/cuban.taxi.ap/index.html)
What strange law makes this acceptable? And they can sink thier car/boats if there are no people on board with the proper (lottery) papers? Are we just waiting for Castro to die before we let them in? (Sorry, I think I know the answer to that!)
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### Author:  [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2005, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuaban-lottery-winners-can-emigrate/307698/2 "2005-06-10T11:48:22Z")
What part of this are you objecting to?
The fact that someone can come in if they followed the rules and have the proper paperwork to enter the USA?
Or the fact that they hold a lottery to distribute said papers?
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### Author:  [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2005, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuaban-lottery-winners-can-emigrate/307698/3 "2005-06-10T12:34:35Z")
This seems pretty simple to me - the US has a certain number of immigration slots, that are given out by a lottery - any elligible foreigner who fills out the proper paperwork can enter the lottery, and if they are drawn, they can come to the US. These Cubans were thus legally entitled to come to the US. Whether or not this lottery system is a good idea is question best suited for the GD.
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2005, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuaban-lottery-winners-can-emigrate/307698/4 "2005-06-10T12:40:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> natives of the following countries are not eligible to apply because they sent a total of more than 50,000 immigrants to the U.S. in the previous five years:
>
> CANADA, CHINA (mainland-born), COLOMBIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, EL SALVADOR, HAITI, INDIA, JAMAICA, MEXICO, PAKISTAN, PHILIPPINES, RUSSIA, SOUTH KOREA, UNITED KINGDOM (except Northern Ireland) and its dependent territories, and VIETNAM. Persons born in Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR and Taiwan are eligible.
[http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types\_1318.html](http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1318.html)
Cuba isn’t eliminated, so what’s the problem? They followed the rules, didn’t they?
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2005, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuaban-lottery-winners-can-emigrate/307698/5 "2005-06-10T12:51:00Z")
Yes, there is such a lottery, which has been in existence for many years. It’s called the Diversity Lottery or the Green Card Lottery.
You want a cite? Well, I entered it about 5 years ago (while already in the US on a temporary employment visa), and won it. As a result, my wife and I have had green cards (i.e., have been permanent residents of the US) for 3 years now.
Do I think it’s fair? No, but since it was available, and since it was an easier way to get a green card than getting one on employment grounds, I acted on the advice of my employer’s Legal Department (who would have had to organise a green card for me otherwise), and entered.
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2005, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuaban-lottery-winners-can-emigrate/307698/6 "2005-06-10T12:57:51Z")
I could be way off base, but I thought Cubans enjoyed a special position denied to all other would-be immigrants, in that if they succeed in crossing the straight and reach the US mainland, they could stay in the US legally. But if they get picked up by the Coast Guard en route, then they’d have to go back. Does anybody else remember anything like this?
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2005, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuaban-lottery-winners-can-emigrate/307698/7 "2005-06-10T13:00:22Z")
The article cited in the OP said:
> [@](#):
>
> Under the U.S. “wet foot-dry foot” policy, Cubans intercepted at sea are generally returned to Cuba and those who make it to U.S. soil are usually allowed to stay.
which confirms what **Spectre of Pithecanthropus** says.
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2005, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuaban-lottery-winners-can-emigrate/307698/8 "2005-06-10T13:07:25Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Under the U.S. “wet foot-dry foot” policy, Cubans intercepted at sea are **generally** returned to Cuba
The exception from this is surely the (very rare and possible unique) situation of Cubans intercepted with valid documentation? This seems to have been what happened here, that the wet-foot policy couldn’t be applied in the normal way.
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### Author:  [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuaban-lottery-winners-can-emigrate/307698/9 "2005-06-10T14:44:56Z")
Doesn’t Castro stop Cubans from leaving? I was always under the impression that _Cuba_ had a lottery to let people leave. Heck, I’d even talked to a Cuban who’d won a lottery, and that’s what I’d thought.
And yes, I do know about the US’ Green Card Lottery; I just imagined that _Cuba_ had something to allow emigration.
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2005, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuaban-lottery-winners-can-emigrate/307698/10 "2005-06-10T14:49:24Z")
> [@Balthisar](#):
>
> Doesn’t Castro stop Cubans from leaving? I was always under the impression that _Cuba_ had a lottery to let people leave.
No answer, but I was amused that googling ‘Cuba Emmigration’ gives the option “ **Did you mean: cuba _immigration_** ”
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### Author:  [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2005, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuaban-lottery-winners-can-emigrate/307698/11 "2005-06-10T14:51:33Z")
Now I’ve got my spelling in order:
> [@](#):
>
> Even though someone has a valid visa to enter a foreign country, he or she needs an exit permit in order to leave Cuba. Known colloquially as the “white card,” the exit permit costs 150 dollars
[http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y05/mar05/25e3.htm](http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y05/mar05/25e3.htm)
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### Author:  [@adirondack\_mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adirondack_mike)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2005, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuaban-lottery-winners-can-emigrate/307698/12 "2005-06-10T18:42:17Z")
I also under the impression that it was a lottery in Cuba that allowed Cubans to emmigrate.
It just goes to show that Castro hasn’t lost his sense of humor.
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### Author:  [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuaban-lottery-winners-can-emigrate/307698/13 "2005-06-10T19:41:31Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#):
>
> I could be way off base, but I thought Cubans enjoyed a special position denied to other would-be immigrants, in that if they succeed in crossing the straight and reach the US mainland, they could stay in the US legally. But if they get picked up by the Coast Guard en route, then they’d have to go back. Does anybody else remember anything like this?
It used to be better than that for the Cubans. Up until the early 90’s, we would bring **all** Cubans picked up at sea to the U.S., where they’d get to plead their case. My understanding is that most Cubans got to stay. This policy did not sit well with supporters of the tens of thousands of Haitian and Dominicans that would routinely set sail for the U.S. during that time. (As well as small numbers of all other nationalities) Then the “wet foot, dry foot” policy was enacted in the mid 90’s. Now, Cubans intercepted at sea are transferred by CG cutter to the Bahamas for interview and most are repatriated to Cuba.
I believe the main difference between Cuban migrants and most others is that Cubans were considered “Political” migrants (coming from a communist nation) and most others were “Economic” migrants, subject to standard immigration policies. The “WF,DF” policy seems to be a compromise of sorts.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [June 10, 2005, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cuaban-lottery-winners-can-emigrate/307698/14 "2005-06-10T23:40:41Z")
> [@Balthisar](#):
>
> Doesn’t Castro stop Cubans from leaving? I was always under the impression that _Cuba_ had a lottery to let people leave. Heck, I’d even talked to a Cuban who’d won a lottery, and that’s what I’d thought.
>
> And yes, I do know about the US’ Green Card Lottery; I just imagined that _Cuba_ had something to allow emigration.
That was the impression I got from the article as well. Cuba has a lottery, but the winners don’t get to leave. WTF? I was also quite impressed /shocked over the car/boat that they were coming over in, very niftey and a shame that they had to sink it. 😃