What’s happening to the U.S. citizenship test? Officials just dropped a major hint

The Trump administration is eyeing a tougher U.S. citizenship test, with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow calling the current version “just too easy” and signaling potential requirements like an essay and more difficult questions.

Speaking Thursday at a Center for Immigration Studies event in Washington, Edlow said the test must better measure whether applicants have a “true attachment to the Constitution,” citing concerns that too many people are “coached” through a process they may not fully understand or qualify for.

The proposed overhaul, still in early discussion, would represent a sharp escalation in the administration’s efforts to tighten scrutiny of citizenship applications.

“I am declaring war on fraud,” Edlow said. “I am declaring war on anyone that is coming to this country and wants to get a benefit, but doesn’t want the responsibility of what it means to actually be a U.S. citizen.”

Edlow floated the idea of an essay requirement and a move toward a more standardized format, dismissing questions like “name one branch of government” as insufficient. “We need to know more,” he said.

The current test requires applicants to answer six out of ten civics questions correctly and demonstrate basic English. It was designed in collaboration with education professionals to gauge civic readiness and language skills.

Edlow’s comments come just a week after USCIS announced it would resume interviewing applicants’ neighbors and coworkers—reviving a practice abandoned in the early 1990s. On Thursday, the agency also finalized a rule expanding its internal law enforcement powers, enabling special agents to investigate fraud and bolster national security.

Critics argue the shift marks a departure from USCIS’s original mission. “It reflects a certain premise that people are manipulating and misusing the system,” said Doris Meissner, former INS commissioner and now head of the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute. “That’s the opposite of why USCIS was created.”