Since you should have been saving your answers for storage on the application page, why not auto-submit anyone who hasn't done so by the deadline and then allow

Since you should have been saving your answers for storage on the application page, why not auto-submit anyone who hasn't done so by the deadline and then allow edits after? You should be able to see who manually re-submits after the deadline (I would think) and allow them to explain their situation. Drop any auto-submitted apps that are not manually re-submitted after a certain time frame.