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The US citizenship test is being updated, and some immigrants and advocates fear the changes will hurt test takers with low levels of English proficiency. One of the final steps towards citizenship is the naturalization test – a month-long process that requires legal permanent residence for years before applying.
Many are still distraught after former Republican President Donald Trump’s administration changed the test in 2020, making it longer and more difficult to pass. Within months, Democratic President Joe Biden took office and signed an executive order aimed at removing barriers to citizenship. In this spirit, the citizenship test has been changed to its previous version, which was last updated in 2008.
In December, US authorities said the test was due to be updated after 15 years. The new release is expected late next year.
USCIS suggests that the new test add a speaking section to assess English language skills. The officer might show pictures of ordinary scenarios—such as daily activities, weather, or food—and ask the applicant to verbally describe the pictures.
In the current test, the officer assesses the ability to speak during a naturalization interview by asking personal questions that the applicant has already answered in the naturalization papers.
It will be more difficult
“For me, I think it would be difficult to look at the pictures and explain them,” said Heaven Mahreta, who immigrated from Ethiopia 10 years ago, passed her naturalization test in May and became a US citizen in Minnesota in June. Mehrita, 32, said she learned English as an adult after moving to the US and found it very difficult to pronounce. She worries that adding a new speaking section based on photos, rather than personal questions, will make the test more difficult for others like her.
Shai Avni, who immigrated from Israel five years ago and became a US citizen last year, said the new speaking section could also add to the stress applicants already feel during the test.
“Sitting next to someone from the federal government, it can be scary to talk and talk to them. Some people have that fear anyway. When it’s not your first language, it can be even more difficult. You’ll probably get nervous and not find the words to tell them what you need to describe,” Avni said. “It is a test that will determine whether you will become a citizen. So there is a lot to lose.”
The second proposed change
Another proposed change would make the Civics section on United States History and Government a multiple choice instead of the current oral short answers format. Massachusetts Citizenship author Bill Bliss gave an example in a blog post of how the test would become more difficult because it would require a larger knowledge base.
A current civics question asks the officer to ask the applicant to name a war the United States fought in the 20th century. The applicant only needs to say one out of five accepted answers – World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War or the Gulf War – to get the question correct. But in the proposed multiple choice format, the applicant will read this question and choose the correct answer from the following options:
a. Civil war
Mexican-American War
C. The Korean War
D. The Spanish-American War.
An applicant must know all five wars the United States fought in the 20th century in order to select a single correct answer, Bliss said, and this requires “a much higher level of language proficiency and test-taking skill.”
Currently, the applicant must answer six out of 10 civics questions correctly to pass. These 10 questions are drawn from a bank of 100 civics questions. The applicant is not told which questions will be chosen but can see and study the 100 questions before taking the test.
The proposed format for the civics department could make the citizenship test more difficult for people with little English literacy, said Lynn Weintraub, citizenship coordinator for the Center for English as a Second Language at Jones Library in Massachusetts. This includes refugees, elderly migrants, and people with disabilities who interfere with test performance.
“We have a lot of students who are refugees, and they come from war-torn countries where they may not have had the opportunity to finish school or even go to school,” said Michelle Beirut, the San Diego Citizenship Coordinator. College of Continuing Education in the Community College District of California. “It’s hard to learn to read and write if you don’t know how to do it in your first language. That’s my main concern about a multiple-choice test; it’s a lot of reading,” Perot said.
official position
USCIS said in an announcement in December that the proposed changes “reflect current best practices in test design” and would help standardize the citizenship test.
Under federal law, most applicants seeking citizenship must demonstrate an understanding of the English language—including the ability to speak, read, and write words in ordinary usage—and demonstrate knowledge of US history and government. The agency said it will conduct a nationwide trial of the proposed changes in 2023 with opportunities for public feedback. Then, an external group of experts — in the fields of language acquisition, civics, and test development — will review the results of the trial and recommend the best ways to implement the proposed changes, which could go into effect late next year.
More than 1 million people became US citizens in fiscal 2022 — one of the highest numbers on record since 1907, the first year for which data is available — and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) cut its huge backlog of naturalization applications by more than 60% compared to the previous year, according to According to a USCIS report also released in December.
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