WASHINGTON — The San Bernardino, Calif., shooters met on a matrimonial website and became engaged to be married after “several weeks of emailing” and a family meeting in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the couple told U.S. immigration authorities in a newly released 2013 visa application.

The government granted the fiancee visa to Pakistani national Tashfeen Malik that let her enter the country to marry Syed Rizwan Farook, with whom she launched the terrorist attack that killed 14 people earlier this month.

The House Judiciary Committee made Malik’s 21-page immigration file public for the first time Tuesday as lawmakers probe whether to tighten requirements for foreigners to enter the country.

The committee’s chairman, Republican Bob Goodlatte of Virginia, charges that immigration officials “sloppily” approved Malik’s fiancee visa without even requiring proof the pair had met. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services insisted Tuesday that Malik had been thoroughly screened and met all requirements to be issued the visa.

The couple applied for the fiancee visa in December of 2013, with Farook listing his birthplace as Chicago and residence as Riverside, Calif. He wrote that he intended to marry Malik, a resident of Multan, a city in Pakistan, after meeting her on a “matrimonial website.”

“My fiancee and I met through an online website. After several weeks of emailing, we decided to meet each other,” Farook wrote.

He wrote that they found a chance to meet when Malik was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, visiting her parents, who lived in the country, in October 2013. Farook wrote that he and his parents had decided to perform the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, that same month.

“We decided to have both our families meet on Thursday, October 3rd, 2013 …” he wrote.

Couples are required to establish that they’ve met in person to get fiancee visas.


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