Trump administration announces plan to

USCIS Acting Director Ken Cuccinelli said in a prepared statement:

Granting U. S. citizenship is the highest honor our nation bestows. Updating, maintaining, and improving a test that is current and relevant is our responsibility as an agency in order to help potential new citizens fully understand the meaning of U.S. citizenship and the values that unite all Americans.

USCIS formed a naturalization test revision working group last year. The members of the group are from across the agency and reviewed the naturalization test questions to create an overall update.

The group will also assess potential changes to the speaking portion of the test. USCIS is soliciting the input of experts in the field of adult education to ensure that this process is fair and transparent. After careful analysis of the pilot, and thorough officer training, USCIS will set an implementation date in December 2020 or early 2021, the news release stated.

USCIS naturalized nearly 757,000 people in the fiscal year 2018, which is a five-year high in new oaths of citizenship.

Note from your editor: Here's what I'll be watching out for in any "improvements" that this administration makes to the citizenship test: 1) significant increase in level of difficulty (especially in the English/literacy test) and 2) ideological bias in civics questions.

Posted: to Citizenship News on Sat, Jul 20, 2019
Updated: Sat, Jul 20, 2019