Cuba or Guyana
Two countries side by side across the same rows as the full comparison. A dash means the value is missing: fields are not filled with guesses. about the data
| Cuba | Guyana | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary in IT | — | — |
| Citizenship | — | 6 years |
| Partner can work | — | — |
| Parents | — | — |
| Pets | no trouble | difficult |
| Pet limit | no limit | no limit |
| Quarantine | no | — |
| Residence permit fee | — | — |
| Rent, 2 bedrooms | $ 399 · estimate | $ 909 · estimate |
| Basket | $ 42,4 | $ 43,2 |
| Life expectancy | 78.26 | 70.32 |
| Homicides/100k | 4.46 | 14.08 |
| Natural hazards, 0–10 | 4.8 | 4.5 |
How the two sets of routes differ
Long-stay routes in this reference: Cuba — 25, Guyana — 25. Types present in both: work, study, family and repatriation. Cuba adds: investment and talent.
Fees, thresholds and deadlines
Cuba: the fee is 1,000 USD wherever it is published. Routes with a published decision deadline: 24; the shortest is 10 days. Guyana: fees range from 20 to 28,700 GYD. Routes with a published decision deadline: 9; the shortest is 7 days.
Beyond the first permit
Permanent status: Cuba after 5 years; the other country publishes no term. Citizenship: Guyana after 6 years; the other country publishes no term.
Cuba in brief
Cuba combines things rarely found together in this set: high life expectancy and clean air alongside expensive communications and utilities. Life expectancy is 78.26 years and mean PM2.5 concentration just 9.45 micrograms per cubic metre — one of the best figures in this guide; basic access to water reaches 95.15 per cent of the population. Road deaths at 5.4 per 100,000 are likewise among the lowest. On the World Bank scale from −2.5 to +2.5, political stability stands at +0.32 (a positive value is rare here), control of corruption at −0.23, government effectiveness at −0.27 and rule of law at −0.62. Overall natural risk is 4.8 out of 10 on INFORM and almost entirely weather-driven: cyclones 8.0, coastal risks 5.7, earthquakes 5.0, against floods at just 0.5. Prices are distributed unusually: internet at 68.65 dollars a month and utilities at 94.11, against a transport pass at 41.6 and fuel at 1.37. The immigration framework was rewritten wholesale by the 2024 laws — on Migration (171), Citizenship (172) and Foreigners (173) — and published together with their regulations in the official gazette. It rests on one principle: a foreigner holds exactly one migratory classification at any time, and everything else follows from it, including the right to work. A work permit is required of temporary residents and real-estate residents, but not at all of provisional and permanent residents. The route to permanent status necessarily passes through the provisional resident stage, granted for up to a year precisely to verify social integration; a refusal at that stage bars a further attempt for two years. Permanent residence is granted after five years of residence under a resident classification, or with no qualifying period on grounds of marriage to a citizen, kinship with a citizen by birth, high qualification or substantial assets; it is approved for five years and renewed until the age of sixty, after which it runs indefinitely. The authority publishes concrete standards: up to 180 working days to consider a permanent residence file and up to 60 days for the decision, three working days for the real-estate resident classification, 15 calendar days for the applicant to remedy deficiencies and 10 days after entry to register. What this data does not contain: the population of Havana is not given, as no official source separating city from province could be found; the country's second city is not included in this guide because the price source reports a one-bedroom flat there at three times the cost of a three-bedroom one, so that data is plainly corrupted.
Guyana in brief
Guyana is the only English-speaking country in South America: English is enshrined as the sole official language. The immigration regime is built on temporary Landing Permits under the Immigration Act, Chapter 14:02 (s. 12): a permit to remain in the country is issued for up to 3 months for a specific purpose (employment, business, study, etc.) and may be extended by the Chief Immigration Officer, but not beyond a cumulative 3 years from the date of entry - the Act does not provide for a separate permanent residence status. Citizenship by naturalisation is available after a cumulative 6 years of residence (12 months immediately before applying plus 5 years within the preceding 7 years - Second Schedule, Guyana Citizenship Act, Chapter 14:01); a spouse of a Guyanese citizen is entitled to register as a citizen immediately after marriage, with no minimum length of marriage set (Constitution, s. 45). Deprivation of citizenship for acquiring a foreign passport, under the Constitution (s. 46), is not automatic but at the President's discretion, and does not expressly apply to acquisition through marriage - the country generally allows dual/multiple citizenship. Graduates of the University of the West Indies and the University of Guyana who are citizens of one of the 12 CARICOM states are entitled to enter and work without a work permit (Immigration Act, Schedule); the CARICOM Secretariat headquarters is also located in Georgetown. Since 2019 the country's economy has been one of the fastest-growing in the world on the back of offshore oil production (estimated reserves of 11.2 billion barrels; GDP grew 43.4% in 2024), which is accompanied by rising prices, primarily for food (World Bank, worldbank.org, accessed 03.08.2026). Outside Georgetown and New Amsterdam, malaria risk persists in the country - preventive antimalarial medication is recommended for travel to the interior (including Linden, Bartica, Lethem) (CDC Yellow Book, updated 23.04.2025). The built-up coastal strip, including Georgetown, where most of the country's population is concentrated, lies on the low-lying Atlantic coast and is protected by a system of sea and river dykes, the maintenance of which is regulated by a separate law in force since 1883 (Sea Defences Act, Chapter 64:01): according to the World Bank, coastal flooding remains a significant environmental challenge threatening Georgetown and Atlantic-coast agriculture. Importing dogs and cats requires a written permit (Import Permit) from the Ministry of Agriculture - specific quarantine periods, a requirement for rabies antibody titre testing, and the minimum preparation period before import are not published in open official sources.
Other comparisons
Cuba or… Panama · Costa Rica · Peru · Ecuador · Trinidad and Tobago · El Salvador · Honduras · Nicaragua
Guyana or… Belize · Bolivia · Colombia · Greenland · Jamaica · Bahamas · Guatemala · Dominican Republic
More on each: Cuba · Guyana. Build your own comparison — up to four countries
This material is for reference and is not legal, tax or immigration advice. Visa rules, tax thresholds and prices change. Before deciding anything, check the official sources and consult a licensed professional in the relevant country.