ODP Program

[Dac Biet]

I have a question about ODP, and I hope someone out there knows something and can help.

I'm trying to help an Amerasian friend sort out her family's situation with immigration.

She departed Vietnam under ODP (Amerasian Sub Program) in 1990.

She filed an ODP case for her mother and siblings in 1991 and they were approved.

She did not follow through with the application for the family to immigrate to the United States because of pressure from her foster family.

She now wants her family to join her in the US. Are they still able to continue processing under the 1991 approval of the ODP case? We have all of the paperwork from 1991, and are prepared to retain an attorney if we need to.

[Dac Biet]

I have a question about ODP, and I hope someone out there knows something and can help.

I'm trying to help an Amerasian friend sort out her family's situation with immigration.

She departed Vietnam under ODP (Amerasian Sub Program) in 1990.

She filed an ODP case for her mother and siblings in 1991 and they were approved.

She did not follow through with the application for the family to immigrate to the United States because of pressure from her foster family.

She now wants her family to join her in the US. Are they still able to continue processing under the 1991 approval of the ODP case? We have all of the paperwork from 1991, and are prepared to retain an attorney if we need to.

Hi,

Your friend should contact the US Consulate in Ho Chi Minh, The Refugee Resettlment Section. The RRS took over the cases/files after the ODP was closed in 1999.

What's your friend status in US? Did she enter as a refugee or immigrant?

[Dac Biet]

She's not sure if she was a refugee or not. She left from the Amerasian Transit Center and came to Catholic Family Charities in 1990. Her I-94 card is stamped with a I-551 "Temporary Evidence of Permanent Residence" on the front, and the back has a US Immigration stamp with her status listed as AM-1.

She filed an IR-5 petition and brough her mother here in 2001. Since the mother was the sole support of the family and is now gone, is there any possibility of humanitarian parole for the unmarried children (over 21 y/o)? The family is basically falling apart without Mom in the picture.

After reading your first post I was under the impression that her mother and siblings are still in Vietnam:
"She filed an ODP case for her mother and siblings in 1991 and they were approved. She did not follow through with the application for the family to immigrate to the United States.."
Now you are saying that her mother actually immigrated in 2001. Is your friend now trying to bring her siblings (unmarried children of her mother)?!

Your friend entered the US as an immigrant and is a citizen now. The one way for her to bring the siblings is to sponsor them for F4 immigration visa / 4th Family-Sponsored Preference: Brothers and Sisters of Adult U.S. Citizens, and their spouses and children.

I still think it would be a good idea to first check with the RRS about the posibilities of bringing sibling based on their approved ODP case.

I don't know about the conditions for the humanitarian parole.