Monika Ummat, MD, a neurologist specializing in epilepsy at Texas Children’s Hospital, and her husband Pankaj Satija, MD, a neurologist who helped found the Pain and Headache Centers of Texas, have been living in the U.S. legally since 2002. They have two young U.S. born children.
Here are six key takeaways from the Houston Chronicle report.
1. Houston Methodist Hospital System sponsored Dr. Satija for a green card around 2008. Due to a substantial backlog and restrictions against the number of immigrants who can be granted permanent status each year, the physicians were granted provisional status until their green cards became available. Immigrants from India who applied for the certification before 2008 are just now receiving their green cards due to the backlog, according to the Chronicle.
2. While the two neurologists regularly updated their temporary work authorizations and travel documents every two years as required, a rule change resulted in their travel documents only being issued for a single year instead of two. Complicating the issue, Customs and Border Protection officials stamped their travel document with an expiration date of June 2017. However, the couple’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services document lapsed in June 2016. The couple missed the discrepancy.
3. After returning from a trip in fall 2016 to see Dr. Satija’s ill father in India, customs noticed the couple’s travel documents had expired. The couple was allowed to enter the country through a program known as deferred inspection.
“We work on spines and brains. We’re not people who can afford to make mistakes. We’re extremely careful,” said Dr. Satija, according to the Chronicle “It’s all hindsight now, but two years versus one year, in such small print, my father being sick … it just slipped our notice.”
4. Per the requirements of the deferred inspection, the couple checked in with Customs and Border Protection every month to extend their temporary permission to stay while waiting for new paperwork. On Wednesday, the couple was told a new policy would not permit an extension of their differed inspection. They were given 24 hours to leave the U.S.
5. Dr. Satija requested a postponement, citing the dozens of surgeries he had scheduled in the coming days. The couple conferred with attorneys from the Quan Law Group and called their local representatives. Republican Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, were responsive to the situation, according to Dr. Satija. At the airport, the couple was informed they’d been granted three months of humanitarian parole.
To read the full Houston Chronicle article, click here.
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