CHNV
Collective US humanitarian parole programme for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, closed to new Cuban applicants in March 2025.
Last refreshed: 17 July 2026
With CHNV closed, is a single USCIS form now the only way a prominent Cuban dissident can leave the island?
Timeline for CHNV
Mentioned in: State Security rang about his US visa
Cuba DispatchBackground
CHNV is invoked in Otero Alcántara's case as the route that no longer exists: since the Trump administration ended the collective programme for Cubans in March 2025, individual Form I-131 filings with USCIS are the only relocation PATH Left, which is why his team's filing is being watched so closely by both his supporters and, apparently, Cuban State Security.
The CHNV programme originally allowed vetted nationals of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to apply for advance parole into the United States with a US-based sponsor, running alongside other humanitarian parole tracks. Its closure to Cubans removed a collective, sponsor-backed channel and pushed applicants back onto the general, slower Form I-131 individual process.
For a high-profile figure like Otero Alcántara, the practical effect is that his exit from Cuba now hinges entirely on a single individual USCIS filing rather than a structured programme, a narrower and slower route than the one that existed before March 2025.