The Cuban Adjustment Act and the story of Cuban exile

Yes. As of November 11, 2026, the Cuban Adjustment Act (Public Law 89-732, 1966) remains in force, with the amendments of 1976, 1980, 2000 and 2006, and appears as a note to section 1255 of title 8 of the U.S. Code.

What ended on January 12, 2017 was the "wet foot, dry foot" policy, not the law. Since then, how the law applies depends mostly on how each person entered: with an admission, with parole or with another document, such as the I-220A.

The law also has a repeal clause provided for in another 1996 law: it would be repealed only if the president determines that a democratically elected government is in power in Cuba. More in What Is the Cuban Adjustment Act and Debate and Future.

It is a federal law signed on November 2, 1966 that allows a Cuban who is in the United States to apply for permanent residence (the green card) without needing a relative or an employer to sponsor them.

Its basic requirements are in the first section: being a native or citizen of Cuba; having been inspected and admitted or paroled after January 1, 1959; having been in the country for at least one year (two in the original text); and being admissible for permanent residence. The decision is discretionary: the law says the government "may" grant the adjustment. The spouse and children who live with the Cuban may also benefit even if they are not Cuban.

When it was passed, President Lyndon B. Johnson estimated that about 123,000 Cuban refugees could apply right away and that about 4,000 more would be added each month. See the text of the law and how it works.

The law requires physical presence in the United States for at least one year. The 1966 text asked for two years; the Refugee Act of 1980 reduced it to one.

According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), that year must be completed on the day the application (Form I-485) is filed, and it does not need to be counted from the parole. The USCIS Policy Manual adds that a person who obtained permanent residence under this law after November 18, 2020 without having completed the year before filing the I-485 is later denied naturalization.

Residence and citizenship are separate processes. To naturalize, the law generally requires five years as a permanent resident, and under the Adjustment Act those years are counted from the rollback date set by the law itself. See How It Works.

It is a rule the law has had since 1966. When the government approves permanent residence under the Adjustment Act, it does not record it with the date of approval but with an earlier one: the date of last arrival in the United States or the date 30 months before the application was filed, whichever is later.

A hypothetical example: a person who arrived in March 2022 and filed the application in April 2023 would be recorded as a resident since March 2022, because 30 months before April 2023 (October 2020) is a date earlier than the arrival. A person who had already been in the country for five years when filing would be recorded as a resident from 30 months before the filing.

According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), that is the date from which the residence is counted when applying for citizenship. The regulation adds that a temporary departure, without intent to abandon residence and followed by a return with admission or parole, does not change the "last arrival" for purposes of this law.