YHYY said:
Thank you sooooo much for this info!! It's so helpful. We're trying to get married in Holguin but his family and friends live in Guantanamo. I was looking at the Sol Rio De Luna y Mares resort. I've emailed the resort directly to get information on the process on daily pass. So you paid a total $40 for the day pass? The wedding package includes 25 guests I also emailed them to find out fees for the extra guests.
The resort takes care of the notary service but when did you guys talk to the notary to speed up the process via Havana? And types of gifts are preferred? lol
How many days before the wedding should the bride and groom be at the resort?
Did you book a room at the resort for 1 week or did you book an all inclusive with flight from Canada?
Did you book a group wedding package from the Airline?
The spousal sponsorship form, did you take it with you to get your husbands signatures? What's the benefit in taking it to Cuba versus waiting until my return to Canada?
Much love,
Mrs.Hubby
I booked a wedding package trip with sunwing. I have to admit, sunwing royally SUCKED SUCKED SUCKED!!! that has to be the only part of the trip that was disappointing. I'll spare you the novel There were so many customer service issues. But, on the positive side, because it was part of the wedding package, I had a reserved place to put my dress. We were also supposed to get an updated room, which we did not. The hotel was willing to, but by that point (3:00am - after 8 hours delay) I just wanted a bed, and then I couldn't be bothered to try and move everything.
The package was all-inclusive, and my travel agent also took care of booking my husband's reservation. We stayed for 2 weeks, while the rest of my party stayed for one. The travel agent that booked the reservation for my husband was able to get a price much lower than if he had shown up or booked from Cuba. We stayed at Brisas Guardalavaca.
You have to make a trip to Holguin a few days before the wedding to do the paperwork (or in your case, maybe Santiago is closer?), but in any case, they want 3-4 days before the wedding. You will probably have to pay for a taxi to do this. My husband arranged for a minibus so that my parents, 2 aunts, my brother and 2 nephews came with us to Holguin. we did the notary stuff, then took them for a tour of Holguin, including the casa particular that we would "hide" at (he was a Gaviota employee ... nuf said!)The wedding planner helped arrange our appointment. We had to pay 800 CUC to the notary, and 25cuc to cover the cost of the taxi for the notary to come to the beach to do the wedding.
The wedding planner cost us 400CUC, and it included the decorating of the beach(gazebo, chairs, aisle, arch way), the wedding cake, the photographer (25 pic & album included. we bought 2 CDs for 150cuc), champagne and juice after the ceremony, my bouquet, an his boutonniere, flowers everywhere, the house band that played romantic music while my dad walked me to the gazebo, and then played happy music after the ceremony. she was also the translator, they decorated the restaurant, as well as the discotheque with some of our special requests (we rented that from 8-11pm for 5 cuc a person - I had designed shot glasses with out names, flags, date of the wedding and palm tree with "cuba" on the back as a souvenir for everyone. They make a pyramid on a table in the middle of the dance floor with them.. so cool with the color lights moving.) They also arranged for a PA on the beach because we thought that people would not be able to hear. She also made the hair appointment, arrange for the caleche, the delivery of the bouquet, etc... Like I was saying before, the hours before the wedding, I was sitting with everyone chilling until it was time to go take my shower, etc.. Honestly, made everything so easy for me. you would NEVER find that in Canada for 400$.
As for the forms, YES, he needs to sign the forms. Tricky a little because on the application (0008 i think) you have to put the wedding date, and it won't let you put something in the future or it won't "validate". What I did was complete the form with the wedding date one year earlier, validated and printed the forms. If I recall, the page your husband has to sign has a bar code in it, so you have to do that step. Then when I got back, I just changed the date, re-validate, and printed again. There weren't any changes to the barcode page with the signature. (I ran it through some software to be sure) The wedding date is in one of the codes on the first page, so I just printed the new one, replaced the second page with the one my husband signed.
For the sponsored person form (5490), I filled out as much as I could, including what I thought the answers would be, even though the wedding had not happened yet and put "see attached", and added page to the back once I was back. If you wait until you are back to fill it out, you will need to send the original to Cuba, have him sign it, and send it back. it's about 60CUC to use DHL and it takes about 2 weeks for a piece of paper.
Make sure to take all the forms that he needs to sign. Trying to send forms back and forth to cuba is not fun!!! especially signature pages.
I would recommend going through your entire application before you go so you know what u need and what forms needs signatures. Preparing the immigration package is stressful, so whatever you can do up front, will help.
sorry to hear that... some days sure are a lot harder than others. I find winter in general is the worst. The only good part is hockey!
