Her colleague Maricel, 44, who is eligible for a Spanish passport because her grandparents were from Spain, identified another problem. “Sure, I can go,” she said, “but where am I going to get the money?”

After all, the new law, despite cutting a bureaucratic hurdle, might not mean lower costs to leaving: Yoani Sánchez, the well-known Cuban blogger whose exit visa requests have been repeatedly denied, said on Twitter that the cost of a Cuban passport will nearly double, to just over $100.

American officials said they were still studying Cuba’s new rules to determine what the impact might be. Immigration is one of the few issues that Cuba and the United States regularly discuss, having occupied a spot at the top of their agendas since at least 1980, when hundreds of thousands of Cubans took to the sea during the Mariel boatlift.

That human flood — encouraged by the Cuban government — eventually contributed to a series of migration accords in the mid-’90s, with an annual quota of 20,000 resident visas for Cubans emigrating to the United States.

The United States then adopted a policy known as “wet foot, dry foot,” in which any Cuban who reaches American soil is given legal status. It is a constant source of anger for the Cubans, who say it leads people to make the perilous journey across the Straits of Florida, but American officials say they have no plans to change the policy because of the new travel rules.

“We remain committed to the migration accords under which our two countries support and promote safe, legal and orderly migration,” said Victoria Nuland, a State Department spokeswoman.

The impact may be felt first by newly arrived Cuban immigrants. Because the new law will let Cubans live abroad for two years, they could obtain American legal residency, which takes at least a year, without giving up their rights in Cuba. “Many recent Cuban immigrants will jump at this chance,” said Ted Henken, a professor of Latin American studies at Baruch College in New York, adding that the change “will allow for a more normal back and forth.”