Abbas Zoufer, a West Valley City resident, shares his frustration. He passed his civics and English test in April 2005 but has not received the go-ahead to take the oath of citizenship.

Neither man knows for sure why final approval to become an American is still pending.

"The only reason they give me is you're under investigation," Ahmed said Wednesday.

"It's a mystery," said Zoufer, a 41-year-old physician who came to Utah from Iraq as a refugee in 2000.

Fed up with the delay, the two refugees - and 21 other immigrants in Utah who have been waiting for years to become Americans - are trying to move things along. Lawyers with Catholic Community Services and private law firms began filing lawsuits last week requesting federal judges to either grant the citizenship applications or order U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to finish processing them within a month.

The attorneys expect to have lawsuits covering the 23 plaintiffs filed by the end of this week in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City. The 13 men and 10 women are from Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, Vietnam and Mexico.

The defendants include USCIS; the Department of Homeland Security; and the FBI, which conducts criminal background checks of naturalization applicants.

Maria Elena Garcia-Upson, a USCIS public affairs officer in Dallas, said the agency does not comment on pending cases. However, she did say USCIS has submitted 8.5 million names to the FBI for checks since December 2002 and gotten responses on more than 8.2 million of them.

"Less than 1 percent require special attention from the FBI," Garcia-Upson said. "We simply cannot bestow any type of benefit, whether it be permanent residency or citizenship, to anyone until such time as we can get back a clean record. We owe it to the American public."

Immigration regulations require USCIS to make a decision on whether to grant a naturalization application within 120 days of an immigrant passing the English and civics exam. An application can be denied if the applicant fails the test or cannot establish eligibility for citizenship, such as proof of continuous residence in the United States for at least five years.

Catholic Community Services said it began receiving complaints from clients in early 2005 of unusually lengthy delays in the processing of their naturalization petitions. The agency points to an FBI backlog as the apparent source of the problem and teamed up with the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah to get free legal representation for the immigrants, all of whom say they have clean backgrounds.

"I don't even have a traffic ticket," Zoufer said.

The doctor said he and his wife, who also is a physician and a plaintiff in one of the lawsuits, want to serve their adopted community as citizens. Zoufer was offered a job last year by a U.S. company that is helping rebuild Iraq but had to turn it down.

The Department of Defense determined Zoufer had the skills for the job, but he was disqualified because he is not a citizen, according to a letter by a company official.

Ahmed, who has been in the United States for 12 years, says citizenship could give him more job opportunities and the right to vote. He would like to cast a ballot in 2008.

He is baffled as to why his application is stalled while most members of his large family, including his parents and siblings, are already citizens. Only he and one brother are waiting for approval.

"Whatever they asked us to do, we did it," Ahmed said. "We're both wondering what's going on."

pmanson@sltrib.com