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Heather Aguilar wonders whether she would be a U.S. citizen by now had she kept her maiden name.

If she were still Heather Newman, she thinks, her naturalization application might have zipped through the process, making her a citizen along with her siblings and parents.

Instead, more than a year after she passed a civics test for her citizenship, one last background check is still pending.

"I'm left waiting for no apparent reason," said Aguilar, a 31-year-old registered nurse originally from Canada.

She's not alone. More and more immigrants are in limbo, waiting for the FBI to do a name check that shows they have no ties to terrorism. Almost all are given no explanation beyond the fact that this check, which was added to the standard criminal background investigation after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is still pending.

Officials with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) do not comment on pending cases but say they try to complete background and security checks as quickly as possible. Spokeswoman Maria Elena Garcia-Upson in Dallas said fewer than 1 percent of the 8.5 million names submitted to the FBI since December 2002 required "special attention."

"The bottom line is we need to have a green light before we can move forward," said Garcia-Upson, whose agency is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

But the yellow light has been on too long for some.

This spring, Catholic Community Services of Utah filed federal lawsuits asking a judge to order the government to issue timely decisions in the cases of 23 immigrants. These legal actions join a host of others in the state and across the nation.

The plaintiffs are legal residents with work permits who have no criminal records and who have passed their civics and English test. One has been waiting since 2002 for the name check to be completed.

In the name check, the FBI runs a search through a database that lists not only exact matches but also ones with similar spellings or pronunciations. The number of hits that need follow-up - which often involves manual reviews of FBI files - can cause long waits for final citizenship approval.

For immigrants with names that are common in their home countries, the delay can seem interminable.

"It's ironic that [government officials] claim they have too few resources to decide these applications since the purpose of the name checks is to ensure we don't have terrorists in the United States," said Salt Lake City attorney David Reymann, who represents three immigrants on behalf of Catholic Community Services.

Reymann and attorney J. Shawn Foster, who also represents immigrants over processing delays, say the name check is not required by law. Foster thinks CIS began the procedure to save face over allowing terrorists who carried out the 2001 attacks into the country.

Those checks, he said, put prospective citizens in a "totally un-American situation," suspected of some wrongdoing but never told exactly what. His clients would be better off with their applications being rejected because they could then appeal the decision, Foster said.

Refugee Abdul Aziz Mohamad Ahmad filed suit in February after waiting more than a year for a decision.

Mohamad Ahmad already has spent a dozen years apart from his wife and child, separated first by war and now by inaction on his citizenship application.

After a long search, he found his family in a Kenyan refugee camp during an overseas trip last year, but will have to wait about five years to bring them to the United States. Immediate relatives of lawful permanent residents such as Mohamad Ahmad have a long waiting period to be approved to immigrate, while family members of U.S. citizens can enter the country right away.

"When immigration doesn't do its job, families are separated," said Foster, who represents the refugee. "There's no more significant family value than being together with your family."

At a hearing in Salt Lake City last month, Foster asked U.S. District Judge Tena Campbell to either rule that Mohamad Ahmad is entitled to become a citizen or set a deadline for processing his application.

Stephen Sorenson, an assistant U.S. attorney, said the name checks are processed in the order they are submitted and asked that CIS be told to handle Ahmad's application within a reasonable time, rather than be given an exact date for completion. While would-be citizens deserve to know their forms are being processed, they don't deserve "being escorted to the front of the line," he said.

Campbell, though, ordered the FBI to complete Mohamad Ahmad's name check within 120 days and CIS to schedule the immigrant for his naturalization oath within 60 days after receiving the results, assuming he's eligible.

Aguilar has kept her case out of court so far, but her frustration is growing.

The Canadian came to Salt Lake City in 1993 as a teenager with her parents, brother and sister after her father was hired by Kennecott Utah Copper. All were legal residents and all eventually became citizens - except Aguilar.

Aguilar and her sister completed the paperwork in late 2005 to become citizens and both passed the civics test. The problem began in May 2006, when her sister was approved for citizenship after the name check but Aguilar's application stalled.

She said the only difference seems to be her last name, which she took when she married Carlos Aguilar, a U.S. citizen, almost eight years ago. The couple have two young daughters.

Her husband suspects racial profiling.

"It's not fair to anybody who has a surname of anything other than English descent," said Carlos Aguilar, a third-generation citizen.

In the meantime, Heather Aguilar continues to pay renewal fees for her work permit as she waits to become a citizen.

"Nothing's happening, and I keep paying out all this money with no explanation."