Trump’s USCIS Strengthens Citizenship Test to ‘Ensure Proper Assimilation of Legal Immigrants’



by John Binder 27 Oct 2025

President Donald Trump’s United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), led by Joseph Edlow, is strengthening the naturalized citizenship test to better assimilate legal immigrants into American society.

The modifications are being made to USCIS’s Naturalization Civics Test, administered orally, which requires legal immigrants seeking naturalized citizenship to answer a series of American history-related questions.

For years, the test asked immigrants just 10 questions regarding the U.S. Constitution and American history, of which they were only required to answer six questions correctly.

Now, adhering to Trump’s executive order titled “Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats,” USCIS is expanding the Naturalization Civics Test to 20 questions, requiring immigrants to answer 12 questions correctly.

“These changes balance the need of USCIS to ascertain the aliens’ knowledge and understanding of the fundamentals of American history, and of the principles and form of government of the United States,” a federal notice of the change states.

Implementation of the more rigorous test began for immigrants who filed naturalization applications on or after October 20.

In August, as part of an exclusive sit-down with Breitbart News, USCIS Director Joe Edlow hinted at his plans to overhaul the naturalized citizenship test.

“It’s important for people to understand English, it’s important for people to understand our history and our government,” Edlow said at the time. “The way the test is written right now and the way it is executed right now, it’s just a little too easy.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2...te-immigrants/