Konstantinos Volianitis v. Immigration and Naturalization Service

The petitioner, Konstantinos Volianitis, seeks review of a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals which affirms a finding by the special inquiry officer that the petitioner is an alien subject to deportation under 8 U.S.C. § 1251 (a) (1) 2by reason of his being excludable at entry under 8 U.S.C. § 1182 (a) (20) and 8 U.S.C. § 1181 (a) (3). Pe titioner’s excludability turns solely on the factual issue of whether his marriage to his former wife, a citizen of the United States, was a bona fide marriage or a sham relationship entered into for the sole purpose of permitting the petitioner to remain in this country as the spouse of an American citizen.

That part of the evidence which is undisputed establishes that the petitioner was born on April 20, 1931, in Sparta, Greece and came to the United States in 1952 as a seaman and thereafter remained in this country. In 1956 deportation proceedings against him were commenced and on August 30, 1956, he was granted the privilege of voluntary departure by September 30, 1956. On September 2, 1956, he was married to Kathleen Theresa Herndon, a citizen of the United States, at Las Vegas, Nevada. Kathleen Herndon was born in Paso Robles,…