Our office previously wrote about changes that USCIS would be making to the Naturalization Civics Test that applicants are required to pass in order to become a U.S. citizen. That updated citizenship test is now in effect, as of October 20th, 2025.

Applicants who submitted their Form N-400 prior to October 20th will be subjected to the previous testing guidelines. Anyone who filed their Form N-400 on or after October 20th, 2025 must meet the updated standards, which includes passing the updated civics test by answering 12 out of 20 questions correctly. The questions are randomly selected from a bank of questions that has been expanded from 100 to 128.

The pass/fail test is administered orally, and an immigration officer will stop the test once the applicant has passed the threshold of 12 correct responses or 9 incorrect responses. Applicants who are unsuccessful may retake the test, but failing the test twice results in an automatic denial of the citizenship application.

The other core requirements for becoming a naturalized citizen include providing proof of living in the United States as a lawful permanent resident for at least 5 years (or 3 years if married to a U.S. citizen), the ability to read, write, and speak English, evidence of good moral character, and taking an oath of allegiant to the U.S. Constitution.

Lawful permanent residents who are 65 years or older and have been in the United States for at least 20 years are subjected to modified testing guidelines that only require answering 10 questions correctly that are randomly selected from a bank of 20 possible questions.

You can download the updated bank of 128 questions and answers by clicking here.

The full study guide for the 2025 Naturalization Civics Test can be found here.

The immigration legal team at the Law Offices of Spojmie Nasiri, PC has extensive experience assisting immigrants through the entire naturalization process, including helping applicants prepare for the citizenship test. Please don't hesitate to contact our office with any questions or assistance.

The United States Citizenship & Immigration Service (USCIS) has announced that it will implement a new civics test for those applying for naturalization. Beginning in the middle of October 2025, those applying for citizenship will be required to correctly answer 12 out of 20 questions that are randomly selected from an updated bank of 128 questions.

The questions are intended to demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of U.S. history and the civics test is required under U.S. law. Applicants are asked each question orally and they must provide a correct response. The questions are not multiple choice, though often there are multiple answers that could be correct.

Previously, applicants would only have to answer 6 out of 10 questions correctly, and they were provided a pool of 100 questions to study. With this change, the number of possible questions increases to 128, and applicants will be required to answer twice as many questions correctly.

Another change as part of this update is the way in which the test is administered. Previously, applicants were asked all questions regardless if they had already reached the threshold of correct answers. Starting in October, if the applicant has already answered the requisite number of correct questions, they won't be asked any further questions. So, once 12 correct answers are provided, the immigration office will stop administering the test. The opposite is also true: if the applicant has provided 9 incorrect answers, the test will stop and they will have received their

Special consideration is given to applicants over the age of 65 who have lived in the United States as a lawful permanent resident for at least 20 years. In this special case, the applicant will only be required to answer 10 correct questions from a specially-selected bank of 20 test questions.

The civics test is one of the core requirements for becoming a naturalized citizen. The other requirements include proof of living in the United States as a lawful permanent resident for at least 5 years (or 3 years if married to a U.S. citizen), the ability to read, write, and speak English, evidence of good moral character, and taking an oath of allegiant to the U.S. Constitution.

At the Law Offices of Spojmie Nasiri, PC, our immigration legal team assists immigrants every step of the way towards applying for U.S. citizenship, including preparing for the civics test.