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.
