The English language/vocabulary and civics components of the naturalization test administered by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to citizenship applicants will change, beginning Oct. 1 of this year.

According to a fact sheet issued by the USCIS, the new US naturalization test is, "A meaningful test [that] will encourage civic learning and patriotism among prospective citizens. A revised test, with an emphasis on the fundamental concepts of American democracy and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, will help to encourage citizenship applicants to learn and identify with the basic values that we all share as Americans."

However, critics of the change suggest that the new test’s format, with a broader range of multiple-choice answers, U.S. geography and modern U.S. history questions, will be more difficult to pass than the current exam.

While the start date for the new test is Oct. 1, the new test will be rolled out among citizenship applicants according to this schedule:

• Those who apply for naturalization and are scheduled for their naturalization interview before Oct. 1, of this year will be given the current exam.
• Those who apply before Oct. 1, 2008, but are scheduled for the naturalization interview after that date, may choose which version of the exam to take.
• Only the new exam will be available to applicants who apply for naturalization after Oct. 1, 2008, or for applicants who are scheduled for their naturalization interview after Oct. 1, 2009, regardless of their application date.

The test redesign effort began in 2000, amidst criticism that the current test lacked standardized content, instruments, protocols or scoring system, according to the USCIS. Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) launched a test redesign project that involved "technical assistance from several test development contractors, the National Academy of Sciences, a panel of history and U.S. government scholars, and a panel of English as a Second Language (ESL) experts."

The 100 new Civics questions and answers can be found at:

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/100q.pdf.

New reading vocabulary and writing vocabulary lists can be found at:

http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/reading_vocab.pdf, and http://www.uscis.gov/files/nativedocuments/writing_vocab.pdf.

For legal representation involving immigration and nationalization issues, contact Illinois Attorney Katherine Moore of Joseph P. McCaffery & Associates at katherine.moore@jpmlaw.net.