Indian doctors, neurologist and founder of the Pain and Headache Centers of Texas, Dr. Pankaj Satija, 40, and his wife, Dr. Monika Ummat, also a neurologist, specializing in epilepsy at Texas Children’s Hospital, were instructed by the Customs and Border Police officials that they have 24 hours to sort out their affairs, before being removed to India, along with their two US-born children, Ralph, 7, and Zooey, 4.
E-Mail Inventor Indian American Entrepreneur Shiva Ayyadurai to Run for US Senate
The couple has migrated legally from India to the US 15 years ago, for research and complete their medical residencies. Dr. Satija was sponsored for a Green Card in 2008. They bought a house in West University Place. They pay taxes quarterly, don’t even have a parking ticket to their name. Dr. Satija had 90 patients scheduled for operations before the end of this week.
A technical mix-up in their Advance Parole, the document which allows legal residents waiting for a Green Card to travel in and out of the US without having to get visa stamped, is the reason for their imminent ‘deportation’. The parole is usually given for a period of one or two years and has to be extended through the United States Citizen and Immigration services.
Dr. Satija and Dr. Ummat are in line for a Green Card under the EB-3 visa category, which is terribly backlogged. Anybody from India who applies for a Green Card under EB-3 visa category would likely have to wait for at least 70 years for a Green Card.
The couple traveled to India last October after Dr. Satija’s father fell sick. Upon return, the Customs and Border Protection officials stamped their travel document saying that it expired in June of 2017. In fact, the USCIS noted that their document actually lapsed in June 2016. But they were allowed back in the US through a program known as Deferred Inspection, they had to regularly report to CBP every month till they received new Advance Parole documents.
Their lawyer at Quan Law Group advised them not to sign any paperwork. They narrated their ordeal to the media, Dr. Satija appeared in his scrubs in front of the media. Their local politicians. Republican Sen. John Cornyn and Republican Congressman John Culberson, were sympathetic to their ordeal.
Indian American Businessman to run for Governor of New Jersey
On March 30, they got a pleasant surprise. Customs officials at Bush Intercontinental Airport informed them of a reversal in decision. They were given three months reprieve to sort out their paperwork.
“Somebody at a higher level has made that decision,” they were told by an agent. “I understand that you are physicians and a lot of lives are at stake.”
It’s a shame what the US had done to the hard-working Dr. Satija, his wife Dr. Ummat, and their family.
By Premji
