March 21, 2025 | Vol. 54, Issue 6

The only bilingual Chinese-English Newspaper in New England

USCIS cancels 2020 changes: Naturalization Civics Test reverts back to 2008 version

On February 22, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that it will cancel the changes made to the Naturalization Civics Test from December 2020 and revert back to the 2008 version of the Civics Test. This is part of President Biden’s executive order on  “Restoring Faith in our Legal Immigration Systems.”

The Civics Test is an oral exam that takes place at the end of the naturalization process. According to the USCIS website, there are a total of 10 steps in the naturalization process to becoming an American citizen. After determining eligibility, one must file the N-400 Application for Naturalization paperwork and pass a background check to prove one’s good moral character, before doing an interview and taking the English and civics test. 

In July of 2019, the USCIS announced a revised version of the civics test which was announced to begin on December 1, 2020. With 128 questions and having to answer 12 out of 20 questions correctly, it is a much longer and drawn out process. Moreover, the 2020 version has questions that are more difficult to answer compared to the 2008 version. 

Sampan spoke to Melody Tsang, AACA’s Multi-Services Coordinator who specializes in filing immigration paperwork. Tsang said, “The new one has more questions and it’s more complicated. They talk about the same thing, but the old one, they might ask ‘Name one war fought by the United States in the 1800s.’ This is easy – just state the Civil War. But in the new one, you have to explain the name of the war. It’s complicated and hard to remember. The [2008] one is easier and the answer is more simple.”

The announcement to revert back to the 2008 version came as a relief. “Many elderly are illiterate. Some don’t even know how to read [their own language,] Chinese, much less English. So having them remember all these names and terms is very very hard for them. I’m so glad that they revert to the old system, which is very good,” said Tsang. 

According to the USCIS, for those who applied for naturalization in December 2020 and have their interview and exam scheduled before April 19, 2021, they have the option to choose which exam to take. Tsang said, “I think people should choose to take the old [2008] one, instead of the new [2020] one.” After April 19, the USCIS will continue to only use the 2008 version of the civics test.

Due to COVID-19, timing and scheduling the interview and exam is not as certain. “Before the pandemic, it would take about three months to process. From application process to interview, it takes three months,” Tsang said. “But now, they reduce the number of people they see per day because they don’t want to overcrowd the waiting area. Before, they would see about 300 people per day, but not any longer.”

For more information regarding the Civics Exam, please email melody@aaca-boston.org 

The list of questions for the 2008 version can be found on sampan.org.

To read this article in Chinese (Traditional), please click here.

Related articles

One Family’s Struggle to Get Mental Health Care Highlights a Problem Many Asian Americans Still Face

When James started taking a more active role in his mother’s health care needs around six years ago, he came to appreciate something he had not understood before. “I didn’t realize without [a family member’s] help that my mom is actually a survivor,” he said. Born in China, James’ mother emigrated to the United States as a young woman and has lived in the Boston area for over 40 years. She has also dealt with mental health issues since she […]

Report: When It Comes to Tapping Into Foreign-Educated Talent, Here’s What the State Can Do

When it comes to tapping into a large number of educated workers, many of whom are bilingual, Massachusetts appears to be missing out. Big time. That’s a takeaway from a new report on the some 240,000 foreign-educated immigrants in the state – 106,000 of whom hold a bachelor’s degree and 134,000 of whom have completed at least some grad school. Many of these immigrants earn less than their U.S.-educated peers and work in jobs that fail to fully use their […]

404 Not Found

404 Not Found


nginx/1.18.0 (Ubuntu)