U.S. adding more questions to citizenship test in latest step to overhaul legal immigration process [View all]
Source: CBS News
Updated on: September 17, 2025 / 2:15 PM EDT
The U.S. government is adding more questions to the civics test that applicants need to pass to become American citizens, the latest step by the Trump administration to tighten the legal immigration process.
The move will reinstate a 2020 test from the first Trump administration that had been scrapped by the Biden administration, which argued the additional questions created unnecessary barriers for legal immigrants seeking to become citizens.
Among other requirements, legal immigrants applying to become U.S. citizens must demonstrate they have lived in the U.S. as lawful permanent residents for at least 3 or 5 years, depending on their case; that they can read, write and speak English; and that they have a basic understanding of America's history and political system.
The civics test has long been administered to assess the last requirement. Under the new version of the test, applicants will need to study 128 questions about U.S. history and politics, and answer 12 out of 20 of those questions correctly. Previously, under a test dating back to 2008, citizenship applicants had to study a pool of 100 questions and answer 6 out of 10 questions correctly.
Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-citizenship-test-immigration-process/
= new reply since forum marked as read