U.S. citizenship test might be getting harder

In towns across the United States, it’s a Fourth of July tradition: celebrating the country’s birthday by naturalizing new citizens. Eighteen cities across the nation, from Seattle to New Orleans to Portsmouth, N.H., held naturalization ceremonies Tuesday, with more in the days before and after the holiday.

But the path to citizenship could be getting rockier. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is weighing changes to the citizenship test that would add a new English-speaking section and multiple-choice civics questions - updates some immigration advocates and prep centers say could be tough for applicants.

“It’s going to create a learning curve,” said Jessica Senat, who directs English-language programs at the Immigrant Learning Center in Malden, Mass. The Center is one of several sites that has volunteered to test out the revised exam this year.

USCIS announced in December it would pilot both the updated speaking test and civics exam, hoping to roll out changes in 2024. The government currently checks would-be citizens’ English skills during their eligibility interview with an immigration officer, not the citizenship exam itself. The proposed test also incorporates a multiple-choice civics exam administered on a tablet, shifting from an oral quiz.

The citizenship test had been a focus of the Trump administration, which doubled the number of civics questions applicants had to answer and added to the pool of potential questions they studied. The Biden administration reversed those changes in 2021, though the Trump-era revision hadn’t reduced the passage rate, which is consistently above 90 percent.

Despite high passage rates, test anxiety is the primary reason people balk at applying for citizenship, said attorney Ruby Robinson, who works at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center.

“People who’ve lived here for 50 or 60 years can be really scared to take the test,” he said. “This includes people whose native language is English.”

Immigration authorities say the new changes will modernize the exam, which last got a significant refresh in 2008. If accepted, the changes would make the process of becoming an American citizen more like that of other countries. Canada uses a written test in most cases, as does Britain.

The United States has required new immigrants to demonstrate knowledge of its history and system of government since the early 19th century, according to the USCIS website. Judges quizzed applicants about their “attachment to the principles of the Constitution” until the early 20th century - a process that sometimes depended on officials’ moods.

Even the current test can vary widely in difficulty, a 2011 study showed.

“Perhaps the greatest problem with the civics test is that it is possible that not everyone takes an equally difficult test,” Michigan State University linguistics professor Paula Winke wrote. Almost all of the applicants the study surveyed knew how many stars are on the U.S. flag, she wrote, but very few knew the number of constitutional amendments.

Despite what could be a rough adjustment, Senat said she hopes the revision will further standardize the citizenship test. Under the current system, the speaking portion varied based on what immigration officers chose to ask. Now all applicants will have to describe a set of pictures.

USCIS said in a news release that its Fourth of July ceremonies “demonstrate our commitment to welcoming immigrants and promoting the benefits of U.S. citizenship for all who are eligible.”

To make that commitment real, Robinson said authorities should tread cautiously during the test pilot, incorporating feedback before finalizing any changes. He said he also worries about proposed increases in naturalization fees, which would raise the total cost of applying to $760 from $725.

“I would hope that when the evaluation results come in, the USCIS considers them seriously, instead of the approach that it tried to take a few years ago,” Robinson said. “If there’s going to be a change, it needs to be a thoughtful process.”