People should not be in this country illegally, but this is the reason they know it is almost impossible to come in legally. DP
20,000 await completion of name-checks
By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times
Boston.com: Seeking to become a US citizen, Biljana Petrovic filed her application, completed her interview, and passed her civics test.
More than three years later, she is still waiting to be naturalized - held up by an FBI name-check process that has been criticized as slow, inefficient, and a danger to national security.
Petrovic, a stay-at-home mother in Los Altos, Calif., who has no criminal record, has sued the federal government to try to speed up the process. She said it's as if her application has slipped into a "black hole."
"It's complete frustration," said Petrovic, who is originally from the former Yugoslavia and is a naturalized Canadian citizen. "It's not like I am applying to enter the country. I have been here for 19 years."
Nearly 320,000 people were waiting for their name checks to be completed as of early August, including more than 152,000 who had been waiting for more than six months, according to the US Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services. More than 61,000 had been waiting for more than two years.
Applicants for permanent residency or citizenship have lost jobs, missed out on student loans, and in-state tuition, and been unable to vote or bring relatives into the country. The delays have prompted scores of lawsuits.
Already this fiscal year, more than 4,100 suits have been filed against the citizenship and immigration agency, compared with 2,650 last year and about 680 in 2005.
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