Omar Sinan, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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ISTANBUL, Turkey - Their lives have become like dying clocks, slowly winding down to a stop.

Enlarge Photo

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Serkan Senturk

Iraqi refugee Suzan, left, and her daughter Aya are seen at their home in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, May 8, 2008.

They skip meals, they sleep longer to avoid the expenses that simply being awake brings. One woman sells her blood to earn a bit of cash.

For some Iraqi refugees, the wait for their fate to be determined means stripping their lives bit by bit to a bare minimum and stretching whatever money they have left.

Sinan Marogi was told nine months ago by the UN refugee agency that his resettlement application to the United States was under way.

There has been progress: The State Department approved him, but now U.S. officials tell him his application is still under security review.

Whenever he asks American officials in Istanbul about it, he says, they tell him to be patient.

"They don't understand, time isn't on my side," he told The Associated Press. "They have jobs and salaries, but none of us have a job or a salary. It is agonizing."

When Marogi first spoke to the AP in October, he was already running low on money. But the 26-year-old was optimistic, dreaming of life in the U.S. and strumming on his guitar to pass the time.

Since then, he says he fell deeper into debt.

So he has eliminated meals - bringing them down to one a day. Visibly thinner than in October, he says he has lost 20 pounds in recent months.

"I can't afford paying for three meals a day," he said.

So he sleeps most of the day - on the living room sofa in the one-bedroom apartment he has shared with another Iraqi couple since he came to Turkey more than a year ago.

Sleep lets him avoid the hunger pains.

"It's better than borrowing more money," he said.

The U.S. has sped up its process of accepting Iraqi refugees.

After a slow start last year, U.S. authorities said in June they had taken in around 5,800 Iraqis so far this fiscal year - and that they have interviewed and conditionally approved more than enough other Iraqis to meet Washington's goal of resettling a total of 12,000 by the end of September.

"The (resettlement) process takes about half the average time (for Iraqis) than any other nationality ... that shows our dedication to the Iraqi refugees," said Laura Keehner, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Keehner said the U.S. is committed to welcoming as many valid Iraqi refugees as possible, but she also stressed the necessity of "maintaining the high security" checks, since entrants will be on track to eventually win citizenship.

The process in Turkey, in fact, is faster than in other countries hosting Iraqi refugees - likely because there are fewer here.

Some 10,000 Iraqi refugees are in Turkey, compared to 1.5 million in Syria and 750,000 in Jordan - the biggest destinations for the up to 2.5 million Iraqis who have fled violence in their homeland since the 2003 U.S. invasion.

But there are disadvantages to Turkey.

It is dramatically more expensive than Syria and is stricter in its enforcement of rules barring the refugees from work.

Not all refugees across the region are in as desperate straits as Marogi.

Though all are barred from work, those who can find under-the-table jobs or get money from relatives still in Iraq squeak by.

Wealthy Iraqis who fled home have even brought investments to countries like Syria and Jordan.

But for many, whatever money they brought with them is running out as time drags on. So they wring every cent, and find that even at what they thought was rock bottom they can still take a few more steps down.