 President Biden [1] signed an executive order to review the English and civics tests for naturalization. His goal is to make American citizenship more accessible. With a wave of his pen, he changed their naturalization process. Instead of immigrants having to know information and fill in blanks- like when was the Declaration of Independence signed- they will have multiple guess answers.
What Is Happening?
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is planning on conducting a trial for updates to the current naturalization test. The current naturalization test has four components: reading, writing, civics, and the ability to speak English. The reading and writing portions of the naturalization test are already standard. Under Biden’s executive order, the naturalization process needs to be reviewed. USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou said,
The naturalization test is a key step in becoming a U.S. citizen [2].
US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which administers the test, will run a trial for five months in 2023 with about 1,500 participants enrolled in the citizenship class.
What Will Change?
The trial will include changes to the English-speaking component of the test, which is not standardized, and the civics component. Jaddou went on to explain that,
We need a standardized speaking portion to the same extent we standardized reading and writing [3].
Rather than a fill-in-the-blank format, the civics portion will be redesigned as multiple choice. At present, applicants must study 100 civics test items and answer six of 10 civics questions correctly to pass.
 In the fiscal year 2022, USCIS naturalized over 1 million new US citizens, marking the highest number of naturalizations in roughly 15 years.
Notes:
- ^https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/14/politics/citizenship-test-new-portion-biden-administration/index.html#:~:text=The%20trial%20will%20include%20changes,standardized%20and%20will%20remain%20unchanged. (go back ↩)
- ^https://www.uscis.gov/newsroom/news-releases/uscis-announces-trial-for-updates-to-the-naturalization-test (go back ↩)
- ^https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/14/politics/citizenship-test-new-portion-biden-administration/index.html#:~:text=The%20trial%20will%20include%20changes,standardized%20and%20will%20remain%20unchanged. (go back ↩)
