Safe Mobility Tracker

This document tracks public reporting in English and Spanish about Safe Mobility offices. It is maintained by Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB).

Last updated March 22, 2024.

Safe Mobility is an initiative led by the U.S. government to facilitate registration for individuals in four Latin American countries seeking to relocate to the United States and other countries.

The Safe Mobility initiative includes both in-person facilities operating in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Guatemala, and a website which intermittently accepts applications. These programs were initially described as six-month pilot programs but have since been extended.

As of December 2023, Safe Mobility reports that it is screening for:

The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program
Parole for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans
Family reunification parole programs

The website reports that labor mobility may also be an option but provides no additional information or indication of screening for employment-based programs.

In each country, eligibility to access Safe Mobility is limited by nationality and other criteria.

In Colombia, Haitians, Cubans, and Venezuelans who entered Colombia through June 11, 2023 can apply. More on the June U.S.-Colombia joint commitment to safe and legal pathways is here.
In Costa Rica, Safe Mobility is open to Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who were present in the country on or before June 12, 2023. At first, the program was invitation only, with UNHCR making a list of those eligible. UNHCR referred 1,300 people to the US refugee program. The program soon opened for individuals to self-register.
In Ecuador, Safe Mobility is open to Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, Venezuelan and Colombian people who were present in Ecuador on October 18, 2023, with additional eligibility criteria. The Ecuador SMO will operate until the end of 2024.
Guatemala’s Safe Mobility is open to Guatemalans only.
Reports indicate that Mexico will host reception centers for refugees from Cuba, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, and facilitate labor pathways for nationals of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. The relationship between reception centers in Mexico and Safe Mobility is not clear.

Results of Safe Mobility

Criticism of Safe Mobility has focused on accessibility concerns, the lack of transparency on timelines for registrants, requirements for individuals to keep the process confidential, and the small numbers of registrants who were referred for U.S. resettlement. Others argue that Safe Mobility “should be given as a chance” and represent “a genuine and good attempt to create safe migration pathways into the US.”

The first Safe Mobility registrants, a Venezuelan family, arrived in the United States in October 2023. In November 2023, the U.S. government announced that it had “welcomed more than 2,000 refugees to the United States,” a number that increased to 3,200 arrivals in January 2024, or more than 107,000 who have applied through Safe Mobility and 11,800 who were referred for U.S. resettlement. As of January 2024, 281 individuals registered in Costa Rica were referred for resettlement in Spain.