The Trump administration is making the naturalization process robust again. The US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on Wednesday, September 17, a new, expanded civics test to measure how well applicants for citizenship understand American history and the foundation of the US Government.
The old test, implemented in 2021, asked just ten questions and required applicants to answer six correctly. For anyone applying for naturalization on or after October 20, 2025, however, the civics test will consist of 20 questions randomly chosen from a pool of 128, and passing it will require 12 correct answers.
Restoring Integrity to the Process
According to CBS, the new questions concern the Tenth Amendment, the Federalist Papers, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison, among others. The immigration agency also announced several other changes, including assessing immigrant applicants’ “good moral character, looking for positive contributions to American society,” rather than just an “absence of bad behavior,” and bringing back neighborhood investigations.
“American citizenship is the most sacred citizenship in the world and should only be reserved for aliens who will fully embrace our values and principles as a nation,” USCIS spokesperson Matthew Tragesser said in a press release. “By ensuring only those aliens who meet all eligibility requirements, including the ability to read, write, and speak English and understand U.S. government and civics, are able to naturalize, the American people can be assured that those joining us as fellow citizens are fully assimilated and will contribute to America’s greatness.”
More initiatives to “further enhance the integrity of the naturalization process” will be announced in the coming weeks and months, Tragesser added.
History of the Civics Test
The Federal Register lists several revisions of the Naturalization Civics Test going back to the early 1900s. At that time, the former Immigration Service and the Courts determined that an immigrant must have some understanding of the provisions of the US Constitution to demonstrate his or her attachment to the founding document, to meet that naturalization requirement. But local judges and magistrates administered their own tests, according to the Federal Register.
Several acts of Congress led to the test we know today: the Internal Security Act of 1950, the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, and the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. The USCIS revised the test in 2008 and again on December 1, 2020, under President Trump’s first administration. The Biden administration’s USCIS rescinded the 2020 Naturalization Civics Test on February 22, 2021, and reverted to the 2008 civics test on March 1, 2021.
Approximately 75% of the content on the 2025 Naturalization Civics Test came from the 2008 test, according to the USCIS, with 25% of the content being new. The new test is essentially a re-implementation of the 2020 test, with one difference: Officers will only be required to ask questions until the applicant either passes or fails the test, the USCIS said.
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