San Bernardino Terrorist Arrived on K Fiancée Visa, Calls to Eliminate it Increase

By Joe Guzzardi
December 4, 2015
 
Details are still emerging about San Bernardino killers’ backgrounds, the American citizen Syed Farook and his Pakistani bride, Tashfeen Malik. One of the most significant known specifics, however, is that Malik came to the United States on the commonly abused K-1 or fiancée visa.
 
A K visa applicant must submit a standard non-immigrant form, with personal and security questions answered, plus certificates from police in every country where the applicant has lived for more than six months, a medical examination, a passport, documentation of financial support, proof of the relationship with a U.S. citizen and must also pay various fees. Applicants granted a fiancée visa receive a sealed file of personal and government documents, which must be kept sealed and presented to security officials upon entry to the U.S. Despite those rigorous requirements, the consular officer who interviewed terrorist Malik approved her, unable to detect her murderous intentions.
 
Among the dozens of non-immigrant visas that provide entry to American for foreign nationals, K visa petitioners have the highest acceptance rate. State Department data shows that nearly 100 percent of K visa applications are approved. About 35,925 people entered the U.S. with fiancée visas last year, including 519 from Pakistan.
 
Even the most obvious fraud cases that might involve Internet hookups, cases where the spouses come from different nations and speak different languages or have only known each other a few weeks are routinely approved. Since 1997, more than 2.5 million foreign nationals have obtained green cards through marriage to an American citizen. During the past decade, twice as many green cards have been issued to American citizens’ spouses than all the work-based non-immigrant visas combined. Although fraud is routinely perpetrated and often recognized, the consular official’s guideline is that if the American citizen thinks the relationship is real, then it is.
 
Based on what investigators have learned so far, Farook and Malik had a brief courtship, much shorter than the time span typically associated with developing a loving relationship. The two met and became engaged after Farook traveled to Saudi Arabia in September 2013 to attend the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that Muslims are required to take at least once during their lifetime. Malik, a Pakistani citizen, applied for a K-1 visa at the American embassy in Islamabad in May 2014 and Farook traveled to Saudi Arabia that July to bring her to the U.S. The Saudi Embassy in Washington confirmed that Farook's 2014 trip lasted nine days. Malik’s K-1 visa facilitated her entry and, after her August 16, 2014 marriage, allowed her to apply for adjust status from non-immigrant to legal permanent residency.
 
In a chilling twist, investigators are probing what they call the “very strong possibility” that Malik radicalized Farook, and may have built the dozen pipe bombs found at their residence. Earlier accounts described Farook as an average American, and a Cal State San Bernardino graduate who held a good job with the county as a health inspector.

Mike Wildes, a former federal prosecutor turned immigration lawyer, said that the K visa guidelines should be tightened. Wildes noted that terrorists are no longer wearing suicide vests but, like Malik, can be disguised as housewives. But a better idea might be to eliminate the K visa. Originally intended to help American GIs after World War II who had met girls overseas they wanted to marry, the K visa has become another vehicle terrorists will use to attack America.