When Abdirizak Ahmed applied for citizenship in 2002, he thought he'd be a citizen in six to eight months. But the 28-year-old Somali refugee is still waiting.

So are Abbas Zoufer and his wife, Thikra Mohammed. The Iraqi refugees applied for naturalization in 2004.

"It looks to me to be unfair," Ahmed said. "A lot of people who applied after me have already got it."

That includes his wife, Mulki, who became a U.S. citizen last month.

The holdup for the refugees' cases has been a name check by the FBI, which is part of the required background check for citizenship. But the three are hoping their long wait to become Americans will soon be over.

They are among 23 plaintiffs for whom Catholic Community Services has helped find pro bono legal representation. By the end of the week, all will have had civil cases filed in federal court asking for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to decide whether or not they can be citizens.

Federal law allows those who don't receive an answer within 120 days after completing a citizenship interview to take their cases to court to seek resolution. Class-action lawsuits representing those who have waited longer are popping up in other states, and other individual cases have been filed in Utah.

Cases held up by the FBI name check represent fewer than 1 percent of the names submitted, said Maria Elena Garcia-Upson, spokeswoman for USCIS. Of the 8.5 million names submitted to the FBI since 2002, 8.2 million have cleared, she said. Last year, slightly more than 700,000 people were naturalized nationwide, including 3,162 in Utah.

"We can't turn a blind eye to the fact that there are people waiting a long time," Garcia-Upson said. "We're surely not going to compromise security to pacify people and get them through.... We have to do the background checks."

The FBI receives more than 3 million such requests each year from several agencies, including USCIS, said FBI spokesman Paul Bresson. A name may be singled out if it has surfaced in an investigation, as a target of the investigation, associate or witness.

"The overwhelming majority are cleared in a timely manner," he said. "The number of requests we've received hasn't slowed. If anything, it's risen."

But Zoufer, who completed his citizenship interview in 2003, said he doesn't understand why — after he's already passed background and fingerprint checks — he and his wife are still suspect. The couple have lived here since 2000 and have three children, two of whom are native-born U.S. citizens. Zoufer said he's since completed a master's degree in public health and he and his wife, both doctors, have completed the medical board exams here.

"It is very frustrating," he said. "We love this land; we want to be part of this land."

Along with citizenship come benefits, such as the right to vote and hold a U.S. passport. There are jobs that require citizenship. Zoufer, who's lived in Utah since 2000, said he would have been accepted for a post as a government consultant in Iraq if he had had his citizenship. Zoufer, who works as a research assistant at the University of Utah, also believes a lack of citizenship may hurt his efforts to find a job as a doctor.

"They know everything about us," he said of USCIS. "We wonder why they don't want us to be part of this community."

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E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com