From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpaper chaseˈpaper chase noun [countable] informal DGOan official process that prevents you from doing something quickly because it involves writing or reading a lot of documents → bureaucracy, red tape
Examples from the Corpus
paper chase• I was asked to do a straight forward paper chase, as we call it, and a few interviews.• She had gotten involved in the paper chase to obtain U.S. citizenship. 