USCIS citizenship test to add essay, 20 questions

The USCIS citizenship test may soon become harder under the Donald Trump administration, with officials considering an essay requirement, Axios reported on Sept. 7. The report said the essay could give immigration officers broader discretion in deciding which immigrants qualify for citizenship.

USCIS has already announced plans to make the test more difficult. Joseph Edlow, director of USCIS, told the New York Times (NYT) in late July that “the current test is not very difficult” and that “it is easy to memorize the questions and answers, which does not align with the law’s intent.”

The planned change would shift the test from the current format—study 100 civics questions and answer at least 6 out of 10 correctly—to requiring 12 correct out of 20 questions. This mirrors the approach used during the first Donald Trump administration.

Axios noted that if an essay is added, subjective judgments could play a larger role when officers assess the immigration law requirement of “good moral character.” The outlet also said that this could lead to more arbitrary decisions on citizenship approval and an increase in lawsuits against USCIS from denied applicants.

Eric Welsh, a partner at Reeves Immigration Law Group, warned that “the likelihood of deciding citizenship approvals based on arbitrary factors such as race is increasing,” calling it “a very dangerous path.”