A doctor spent more than four months trapped in Canada after she was banned from re-entering the US following an alleged glitch at the Maine driver’s license bureau, according to a lawsuit.

Dr Behnoosh Dashti, a dual citizen of Iran and Canada, crossed into Canada at the Fort Fairfield port on April 8 for what was expected to be a quick trip.

The 52-year-old has lived in Maine since 2022 after entering the country legally on an H-1B work visa, according to a lawsuit Dashti filed in the wake of the incident which has since been dismissed.

Dashti, who has worked as a physician for the women’s health clinic at Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital since 2023, had just extended her visa through 2029.

But when she went to renew her driver’s license at the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV), she claimed her ID was rejected because the agency could not see the extension in its computer system.

Dashti claimed the BMV advised her to cross into Canada, a mere 30-minute drive from her Presque Isle home, in a bid to update her immigration status in the system.

She entered Canada around 2pm and tried to cross into the US a few minutes later, but was detained by Border Patrol officers for 10 hours, she alleged. She claimed she was then released back into Canada and barred from re-entering the US.

The doctor has now returned home just over four months later after filing a lawsuit against the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Department of Homeland Security, which all parties have since agreed to dismiss with prejudice, meaning it cannot be filed again.

Dr Behnoosh Dashti, 52, spent five months trapped in Canada she was banned from re-entering the US following a glitch at the Maine driver’s license bureau, according to a lawsuit

The mother-of-two, pictured with her young daughter, said she did not see her children or husband the entire time she was away

Dashti claimed in the filing that while she was detained by CBP, agents questioned her over her Iranian heritage and her mother’s employment with the Iranian government in 1980.

She told agents that she and her family ‘hold hatred for the Iranian regime’ and that she fled to Canada in 2008 to escape the dictatorship in Iran, her lawsuit said.

She also told authorities she had no plans to return to Iran, the complaint said. 

Agents asked her about her opinions about the US and Israel’s ongoing war with Iran, which she claims to have said was ‘sad’ but ‘necessary,’ the complaint alleged.

She also told officials she was ‘thankful to President Donald Trump for the death of Iran’s ayatollah, an event she described as a gift to all Iranian people,’ the court filing said.

Despite having a passport and valid work visa, agents told Dashti that she was inadmissible to enter the US because she did not have valid documents, the lawsuit alleged.

Agents refused to let her call her lawyer when she requested, according to the complaint. 

Dashti, with her husband, said Border Patrol told her she was inadmissible to enter the US because she did not have valid documents, even though she had a passport and work visa, her lawsuit states. The filing was later dismissed

The physician, a dual citizen of Iran and Canada, has lived in Maine since 2022 and works for the women’s health clinic at Northern Light A.R. Gould Hospital. Her H1-B visa is valid until 2029, she said

She was released back into Canada, where she spent the last few months living in various hotels and Airbnb rentals.

She was also unable to work while away, she told the Press Herald. 

Dashti claimed she called her husband and her two children, aged 22 and 13, regularly but was unable to see them because they too feared that if they crossed the border they would be stuck in Canada.

The doctor was readmitted to the US late on Friday and has since dismissed her lawsuit against the government, her attorney said.

She said it is a ‘very nice feeling to be back home,’ but described her detainment as one of the biggest hardships she has ever faced.

‘I lived in Iran during my childhood youth and it was under a dictatorial regime,’ Dashti told the newspaper. ‘I witnessed wars, and when I immigrated to Canada, and I had to start over, which means I have faced difficulty and hardship in my life. It’s not that I’m unfamiliar. 

‘But this was the hardest for me. I didn’t know what’s going on, and it was unpredictable and uncertain. And those elements add to the difficulty of the situation.’

An explanation has not been provided for CBP’s inadmissibility finding, Dashti claimed.

Dashti was readmitted to the US late on Friday. She said it is a ‘very nice feeling to be back home,’ but described her detainment as one the biggest hardships she has ever faced

The Daily Mail has approached Dashti, her attorney, the DHS, Maine’s State Department, which oversees the BMV, and the US Attorney’s Office of Maine, which represented the CBP officials in Dashti’s dismissed lawsuit for comment.

A spokesperson for the Department of Secretary of State told the Herald that federal law requires the BMV to check the legal status of anyone who applies for a REAL ID.

‘If something appears to be missing in that federal system, we are prohibited from issuing a REAL ID driver’s license,’ the spokesperson said.

‘In those situations, which are not uncommon, individuals are advised to check with their attorney or USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services).’

The US Attorney’s Office of Maine declined the Herald’s request for comment.