According to DHS, the temporary $3,000 offer applies to people who are in the United States illegally, who register to self‑deport through the CBP Home mobile app and are approved, and who sign up before the end of the year. The underlying CBP Home program says incentives are for “non‑criminal aliens” present in the U.S., so applicants must also pass DHS vetting for criminal and security issues. Participants receive DHS‑arranged travel home and the cash stipend after DHS confirms they have actually departed.
In this context, “self‑deport” means you voluntarily leave the U.S. on your own initiative instead of being physically removed by immigration authorities. With CBP Home, the basic steps are: • Download the CBP Home app (Apple or Android) and select the Intent to Depart/self‑deportation option. • Answer a short questionnaire and provide required details: name, date of birth, country of citizenship, email, phone number, and a clear selfie; you can also add family members (“co‑travelers”) and request travel assistance. • DHS/CBP vets your information; if approved, they arrange and pay for your travel home and ICE temporarily deprioritizes you for arrest before that departure. • After you leave, CBP confirms your departure via airline/sea records or you verify it in the app (for land travel by location + new photo); once departure is confirmed, your stipend/“exit bonus” is paid.
DHS says using CBP Home and taking the stipend does not give you any lawful immigration status and is not treated as statutory “voluntary departure” or a withdrawal of your application for admission. If you already have a final removal order, leaving through CBP Home generally counts as executing that order, so the usual re‑entry bars tied to removals and unlawful presence still apply under immigration law. DHS also states that if you depart while an asylum application is pending, you will generally be presumed to have abandoned that asylum claim. At the same time, DHS has said that leaving voluntarily “may help preserve” the possibility of applying to return legally in the future compared with being forcibly deported, but there is no guarantee and any future visa or admission would still be decided under the normal grounds of inadmissibility (including the 3‑ and 10‑year bars for unlawful presence).
Program materials say that people who self‑deport through the CBP Home app and complete departure will have any civil fines for failing to depart after a removal or voluntary‑departure order “forgiven” and “will not have to pay these fines.” DHS describes this as a built‑in benefit of using the app; there is no separate court process or additional form for the individual that has been published. The actual cancellation of fines appears to be handled administratively within DHS/ICE once your app‑based departure is confirmed.
There is currently no public guidance from DHS or the IRS on whether the $3,000 CBP Home stipend is treated as taxable income or reported to U.S. tax authorities, so its tax status is not clearly known from available information.
The CBP Home program states that “all non‑criminal aliens present in the United States are eligible” for incentives, which implies that people DHS classifies as “criminal aliens” (for example, with certain criminal convictions revealed in vetting) are not eligible to participate or receive the stipend. By contrast, having a prior deportation or an existing final removal order does not by itself bar you: DHS explicitly says people who have been deported before or who currently have a final order of removal remain eligible to self‑deport through CBP Home, though their departure will usually count as executing that order and carry the usual immigration consequences.
According to DHS and CBP, the CBP Home app collects at least: your name, date of birth, country of citizenship, email address, phone number, a clear selfie/photo, and for some users passport or alien registration numbers and location data (for verifying land departures). App‑store disclosures also indicate collection of device IDs and other technical identifiers. DHS says this data is used to verify identity, vet you against immigration and law‑enforcement databases, determine eligibility, arrange travel, confirm your departure, and decide any related enforcement actions; CBP’s privacy documents note that information may be shared with other DHS components and with federal, state, local and some foreign law‑enforcement partners under existing “routine use” and information‑sharing agreements. DHS and CBP state that CBP Home uses “streamlined data collection” (only the essentials, no A‑number required to register), encrypts data in transit, and is covered by CBP privacy impact assessments and DHS privacy policies, but the data is still retained in CBP systems and can be used for immigration‑enforcement and other authorized purposes.