While the United States and Cuba have a complicated past and an unpredictable future, it seems like there is some 'progress' with records indicating that Cubans are taking advantage of a travel reform that went into effect last year around this time.

After 50 long years, the Cuban government finally decided to get rid of an exit visa requirement that had made it challenging for most islanders to go abroad.

At the time, "the much-hated measure was long justified as necessary to prevent brain drain as scientists, doctors, athletes and other skilled citizens were lured away from the Communist-run nation by the promise of capitalist riches," according to The Associated Press.

"A year into the new law, Cubans are traveling in record numbers. Some have not returned, but there's no sign of the mass exodus that some feared. Dissidents are coming and going and raising their international profiles -- and money -- but there has been little impact on their limited ability to effect political change back home."

Meanwhile, the U.S. "has publicly welcomed the travel reform" with open arms, issuing around 32,000 tourist and professional visas to Cubans in the most recent fiscal year ending Sept. 30 -- a 100 percent increase over the previous period, according to the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, the AP points out. Additionally, "the mission, which Washington maintains instead of an embassy, also handed out roughly 24,000 immigration visas." 

How do Cubans feel about the travel reform?

Carlos Alzugaray, a longtime Cuban diplomat and prominent intellectual, told the AP: ''I'm sure there was internal resistance to the migratory reform. I know that in some cases there were ministries that said 'all our doctors are going to leave,' and I can imagine some people in the ideological apparatus saying 'if we let the dissidents travel, this is going to be terrible.''' 

''What has life shown?'' he asked. ''They did the reform, and nothing happened.''

How many Cubans have traveled since the reform took place?

Last month a migration official noted that through the end of November, 185,000 Cubans traveled abroad on 258,000 separate trips, the AP reports, thus representing a 35 percent increase on the previous year.

"About 66,000 Cubans traveled to the U.S. during the period, a figure that apparently includes everyone from tourists to islanders with immigrant visas, from researchers on academic exchanges to dual Spanish-Cuban citizens who can enter the U.S. without a visa."

While there wasn't a "mass exodus" per say, not every Cuban who has left has returned to the island -- with "only about 40 percent, or 26,000 having returned so far. Therefore, "about 40,000 Cubans are still abroad - comparable to the total number of Cuban immigrants to the United States in 2012."

While the AP or others speculating the situation can't determine the final outcome, many are expected to return to Cuba after finishing up the academic year, or after "taking advantage of a new provision in the travel reform that lets islanders stay overseas for two years without losing residency rights back home."

It's also important to note that "Cubans who remain in the U.S. for at least a year qualify for residency there, meaning for the first time some will be able to live bi-national lives, shuttling back and forth and enjoying the best of both countries" -- a new concept that many never thought they would live to see the day that would happen.

But the AP also points out the financial hurdles that come with travel as well as the "difficulty of obtaining visas from countries that view Cubans as possible immigrants."

There has reportedly been an uptick of Cubans "showing up at the U.S.-Mexico border and claiming entry under a law that lets Cubans who arrive on U.S. soil stay." In addition, there has been a surge in visa requests at the Mexican Embassy in Havana, which recently had no visa appointments available until 2016. 

Recently, "six Cubans were temporarily in limbo at the transit area of the international airport in Bogotá, Colombia, after they were kicked out of Ecuador and refused to board their connecting flight back to Havana.

"Ecuador is one of the few nations that don't require a visa of Cubans, but after the January law it began making them secure letters of invitation to enter."

With a fragile economy in Cuba, however, the law could inevitably lead to "some increased emigration," the AP adds, which has been reflected in the desire to emigrate for financial opportunities rather than to flee Communism and gain "political freedom."

Increase in Americans Visiting Cuba

On the flip side, according to an earlier report, Americans are visiting Cuba in record numbers despite strict travel restrictions, joining the hundreds of thousands of Cuban Americans who travel home each year, according to Cuban government figures.

In October of 2013, Reuters reported that "just over 98,000 U.S. citizens visited Cuba in 2012, up from 73,500 in 2011 and twice the number compared with five years ago, according to an online report by the National Statistics Office.

"The numbers do not include more than 350,000 Cuban Americans estimated by travel agents and U.S. diplomats to have visited the island last year. Because Cuba considers them nationals, they are not listed in its tourism statistics," Reuters adds.

U.S. citizens were barred from traveling to Cuba without government permission under a U.S. trade embargo imposed five decades ago that can only be lifted by Congress.

So, why has there been a rise in U.S. visitors?

The increase "partly reflects a loosening of travel restrictions by President Barack Obama's administration and allow 'people-to-people' contact aimed at speeding political change on the communist-ruled island 90 miles from Florida.

"As well as allowing Cuban Americans to travel to Cuba freely, Obama authorized licenses for "purposeful" travel to more than 250 Cuba travel agents and allowed more airports to provide charter service between the two countries," according to Reuters. "The program, which began in 2011 and requires annual renewal of permission to bring groups to Cuba, allows for educational and cultural travel. The regulations require detailed itineraries of each traveling group."