SEATTLE — Seventeen years ago, I celebrated my first Independence Day as a United States citizen. I couldn’t have predicted then that I would one day have the enormous privilege of being the first Indian-American woman to serve in the United States House of Representatives, and one of only six members of Congress who are naturalized citizens.

After arriving here from India at age 16, I spent more than a dozen years on an alphabet soup of visas — F1, H1B and more — before I finally got my green card through marriage to an American. Some years later, I was awarded a fellowship from the Institute of Current World Affairs, which allowed me to spend two years living in my birth country. I just had to come back to the United States once a year to keep my permanent resident status current. When I became pregnant during the second year of the program, my husband and I planned to return to the United States in time for my last trimester, so I could deliver the baby at home, and then return to India.

That plan did not work out. Just two weeks before we were scheduled to board our flight back to the United States, I developed a leak in my amniotic sac. My son was born prematurely at 26.5 weeks, weighing less than two pounds. I was now faced with a choice. In order to preserve my permanent resident status, I needed to return to the United States within weeks of his birth. But he was so tiny and in such critical condition that he could not fly, and I refused to leave his bedside knowing he might die.

So I stayed in India. I lost my green card status and only through the help and hard work of the institute was I able to regain my permanent residence status and return to the United States three months later when my son was finally able to fly.