October 30,  2007

USCIS Announces New Naturalization Test

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released the 100 questions and answers that comprise the civics component of the new naturalization test. The USCIS will begin using the new test in October of  2008. The revised naturalization test emphasizes fundamental concepts of American democracy, basic U.S. history, and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.  Earlier this year, more than 6,000 citizenship applicants volunteered to take a pilot version of the test at 10 USCIS sites across the country during a four-month period. The 100 new civics items on the new naturalization test were selected after USCIS, a panel of history and government scholars, and English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers conducted a review of their responses to the 142 items on the pilot test. Following the pilot, USCIS refined the questions and answers, dropped several and adjusted others to increase clarity, and conducted a second review, and finally narrowing the list to the new 100 questions. Also, the range of acceptable answers to questions will increase so that applicants may learn more about a topic and select from a wider range of responses.