## Facts

- Juanita de los Santos Moss, a Philippine citizen, entered the United States on July 16, 1977 on a K-1 fiancée nonimmigrant visa based on her intent to marry a U.S. citizen.
- The couple had lived together for about a year in the Philippines, and both intended to marry when she entered the United States.
- Moss married her U.S.-citizen fiancé on October 18, 1977, 92 days after entry.
- There was no allegation of marriage fraud; the marriage was treated as bona fide.
- The husband later abandoned Moss; a child of the marriage was born after the abandonment.
- INS initiated deportation proceedings on March 16, 1978, alleging Moss was deportable because she did not marry within 90 days of entry.
- Moss admitted the marriage occurred after 90 days but argued she had substantially complied and that the delay may have been due to illness or other circumstances beyond her control.
- The immigration judge treated the 90-day period as strict, refused to admit evidence explaining the delay, and found Moss deportable; the BIA affirmed.

## Issues

1. Whether INA § 214(d)’s 90-day marriage requirement for K-1 entrants is an inflexible deadline rendering any later marriage deportable.
2. Whether the 90-day period may be tolled when a bona fide fiancée intended timely marriage but was prevented by circumstances beyond her control.
3. Whether excluding evidence on the reasons for delay requires remand in a deportation proceeding based on alleged noncompliance with the 90-day requirement.

## Decision

- The Fifth Circuit granted the petition for review in part and rejected the agency’s strict interpretation of INA § 214(d).
- The court held the 90-day marriage period is not absolute and may be tolled to account for delays beyond the alien’s control.
- The court remanded for further proceedings so Moss could present evidence explaining why the marriage occurred after 90 days.

## Legal Principles

- INA § 214(d)’s 90-day K-1 marriage provision is not necessarily an inflexible bar; it can permit tolling when the alien shows good-faith intent to marry within the period and a delay caused by factors beyond the alien’s control.
- Where deportability turns on failure to meet the 90-day marriage period, the factfinder must allow relevant evidence on whether uncontrollable circumstances caused the delay.
- Statutory interpretation should account for the K-1 provision’s function of enabling bona fide marriages, rather than imposing deportation for minor technical delays inconsistent with that function.

## Conclusion

The court held that a K-1 entrant’s marriage occurring slightly after 90 days does not automatically establish deportability under INA § 214(d) when the delay may have resulted from circumstances beyond the alien’s control, and it remanded to allow Moss to present evidence supporting tolling.


Moss v. I.N.S., 651 F.2d 1091 (5th Cir. 1981)