Obama wants fiance visas to be reviewed

Tashfeen Malik, the woman in the California mass shooting entered the US with a fiance visa and Barack Obama has asked for the program to be reviewed.

US President Barack Obama

US President Barack Obama Source: Getty Images

President Barack Obama has asked the US Department of Homeland Security and the State Department to review the K-1 fiance visa program that was used by a couple responsible for a mass shooting in California.

The FBI continues to investigate the motives behind the massacre on Wednesday of 14 people by Tashfeen Malik, 29, a Pakistan native who came to the US from Saudi Arabia on a K-1 visa to marry her American-born husband Syed Rizwan Farook, 28.

The visa permits foreign citizens to enter the country to marry Americans. In 2014, almost 36,000 K-1 visas were issued, according to State Department statistics.

Malik is believed to have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group on Facebook around the time of the attack.

Obama called the shooting "an act of terrorism" and the shooting has renewed American fears about attacks from extremists.

In a televised address, Obama said he had ordered a review of the "visa waiver program" used by Malik to enter the US. But a White House official confirmed Obama misspoke, meaning to say "visa program".

The US government separately is making a series of changes to its visa waiver program to screen travellers more closely from 38 countries who can enter the US without visas. The measures were prompted by November 13 attacks in Paris by IS militants.


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Source: AAP


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