Tashfeen Malik Biography: Terror Suspect a DHS, State Department Vetting Failure?

Tashfeen Malik, age 27, was killed in a police shootout on San Bernardino Avenue in San Bernardino on Wednesday, December 2, 2015, according to law enforcement authorities. At the time of the shootout, Malik and her husband Syed Rizwan Farook were suspects in the killing of 14 people and the wounding of 17 people at the Inland Regional Center where county officials were having a Christmas/holiday party.

Hours before their violent assault, Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik left their six-month-old daughter with Farook’s mother the morning before the attacks, saying they were going to a doctor’s appointment.

Tashfeen Malik, using another name, posted allegiance to ISIS and support for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi either shortly before the attack or during the attack, according to an FBI press conference on Friday, December 4, 2015.

When Tashfeen Malik was killed, she was shooting out the back of a rented Ford Expedition during a police pursuit and shootout.

Tashfeen Malik is reported to be originally from Pakistan, who later lived in Saudi Arabia.

Tashfeen Malik entered the United States in July 2014 on a K-1 Visa (fiancée visa) with an Islamic Republic of Pakistan passport. Pakistan forbids its citizens from going to Israel by putting the legend ‘This passport is valid for all countries of the World except Israel’ on Pakistani passports. Malik entered the United States via Saudi Arabia.

Farook applied for permanent residency (a “green card”) for Malik in September 2014, and she was granted a conditional green card in July 2015. Obtaining the green card would have required the couple to prove that the marriage was legitimate, and would have required Malik to provide her fingerprints and pass criminal and national security background checks using government databases.

Although two photographs are required as part of required documentation for a K-1 Visa, no photograph of of Tashfeen Malik has been available to the media as of early Friday afternoon Central Time, December 4, 2015 (more on K-1 Visa below).

SYED RIZWAN FAROOK DATING PROFILE
Religious but modern family of 4

Identities as Muslim with Eastern and Western mix family values

Enjoys target practice in his backyard

Tashfeen Malik met Syed Rizwan Farook for the first time in Saudi Arabia in the September 2013 when both went on the Hajj pilgrimage, and following a connection via an online dating service, according to a report from CNN.

Tashfeen Malik was described by Syed Rizwan Farook as a pharmacist, family lawyers for Farook’s relatives said that Malik was not a pharmacist in the United States.

Tashfeen Malik married Syed Rizwan Farook on August 16, 2014, in Riverside, California, close to San Bernardino, according to a report from Fox News. Syed Rizwan Farook an American citizen born in Chicago, may have lived a short time in Darien, Illinois and was raised in Southern California by parents of Pakistani descent. When Farook was born, his parents lived in an apartment in 1900 block of west Harrison Street, according to a report in the Daily Herald.

The family apparently lived in an apartment on Plainfield Road in Darien for a short time in 1990, records show, then at several Chicago locations before moving to Riverside in 2001, when Syed Rizwan Farook would have been 13 or 14.

— Daily Herald by Diane Dungey and Jake Griffin

Some of the same county employees that were murdered by Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook had thrown the couple a baby shower earlier in the year 2015.

On Friday December 4, 2015, Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook were named as suspects in a confirmed terrorist act involving the mass shooting at Inland Regional Center on December 2, 2015.

K-1 Visa Information
A K-1 visa is issued to the fiancé or fiancée of a United States citizen to enter the United States, and requires a foreigner to marry his or her U.S. citizen petitioner within 90 days of entry, or depart the United States. Once the couple marries, the foreign citizen can adjust status to become a lawful permanent resident of the United States. Although a K-1 Visa is legally classified as a non-immigrant visa, it usually leads to important immigration benefits and is therefore often processed by the Immigrant Visa section of United States embassies and consulates worldwide. If a K-1 visa holder does not marry his or her U.S. citizen petitioner within 90 days of entry, then he or she must depart the United States within 30 days.

What Is a “Fiancé(e)”?
Under U.S. immigration law, a foreign-citizen fiancé(e) of a U.S. citizen is the recipient of an approved Petition for Alien Fiancé(e), Form I-129F, who has been issued a nonimmigrant K-1 visa for travel to the United States in order to marry his or her U.S. citizen fiancé(e). Both the U.S. citizen and the K-1 visa applicant must have been legally free to marry at the time the petition was filed and must have remained so thereafter. The marriage must be legally possible according to laws of the U.S. state in which the marriage will take place.

In general, the foreign-citizen fiancé(e) and U.S. citizen sponsor must have met in person within the past two years. USCIS may grant an exception to this requirement, based on extreme hardship for the U.S. citizen sponsor to personally meet the foreign-citizen fiancé(e), or, for example, if it is contrary in the U.S. citizen sponsor’s or foreign-citizen fiancé(e)’s culture for a man and woman to meet before marriage.

Required Documentation
You, the foreign-citizen fiancé(e), (and eligible children applying for K-2 visas) will be required to bring the following forms and documents to the visa interview:

Completed Form DS-160, Online Nonimmigrant Visa Application. You (and any eligible children applying for K-4 visas) must: (1) complete Form DS-160 and (2) print the DS-160 confirmation page to bring to your interview.
A passport valid for travel to the United States and with a validity date at least six months beyond your intended period of stay in the U.S. (unless country-specific agreements provide exemptions).
Divorce or death certificate(s) of any previous spouse(s) for both you and the U.S. citizen sponsor
Police certificates from your present country of residence and all countries where you have lived for six months or more since age 16 (Police certificates are also required for accompanying children age 16 or older)
Medical examination (vaccinations are optional, see below)
Evidence of financial support (Form I-134, Affidavit of Support, may be requested)
Two (2) 2×2 photographs. See the required photo format explained in Photograph Requirements
Evidence of relationship with your U.S. citizen fiancé(e)
Payment of fees, as explained below

See also travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/immigrate/family/fiance-k-1.html

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