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Date Announced
Nov. 13, 2020USCIS revises civics portion of the naturalization test, increasing the number of questions applicants must answer correctly, adding more difficult questions to the question bank, and requiring interviewing officers to ask more questions.
- Starting December 1, 2020, applicants for U.S. citizenship will have to correctly answer at least 12 of 20 questions posed by interviewing officials.
- Applicants will need to study a larger number of possible questions. USCIS has increased the number of questions from 100 to 128 and revised existing questions and answers.
- Interviewing officials must ask all 20 questions, rather than stopping after an applicant has answered enough questions correctly to pass the test.
The policy alert indicates that the revised, more difficult test will not be administered to applicants who (1) are 65 years old or older; and (2) have been LPRs for at least 20 years. This policy alert bears letterhead indicating that it is issued by the USCIS Office of the Director.
[ID #1148]
View Policy Document View Policy Document -
Effective Date of Change
Dec. 1, 2020
Prior Policies
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The current civics portion of the naturalization test has been in use since October 1, 2008. Under the prior policy, applicants for naturalization were required to answer only 6 of 10 questions correctly. Interviewing officials would stop asking questions after an applicant answered enough questions correctly to pass the test. The question bank contained only 100 questions.
USCIS - 100 Civics Questions and Answers (Prior Version) - INA 312
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Associated or Derivative Policies
Commentary
MPI issued a report in September 2008 analyzing the last revision of the civics portion of the naturalization test.
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