Raising the bar on U.S. citizenship

Back in September, this corner tackled the topic of a new US citizenship requirement, a vetting program called neighborhood investigations in which the neighbors, co-workers, employers, and business associates of a US citizenship applicant get to play a crucial role in the naturalization process.

As previously noted, relevant vetting points include the applicant’s residency, good moral character, and positive aspiration towards the good order and happiness of the United States.

However, as a complementary measure, the US Department of Homeland Security released a new set of adjudicatory guidelines among which is the rule that individuals applying to become American citizens should not, for purposes of establishing good moral character, rely solely on the absence of derogatory information on their records during the relevant time periods prior to the filing of a citizenship application (five years for regular naturalization applicants and three years for spouses of US citizens).

Rather, they must also prove, in a proactive way, that they had engaged in noteworthy endeavors in the past, even outside the statutory vetting periods.

Simply put, passive proof of good moral character is not enough; proactive evidence of upstanding behavior as a productive member of the community is now a must.

In addition to the new “proactive” character evidence requirement, the naturalization examination has also been revised to expand the pool of questions from which the civics portion of the test would be asked, with the goal of strengthening the applicants’ knowledge of the history and principles of America’s government beyond the mere fundamentals.

Prior to the revision, the bank of citizenship questions had contained 100 potential civics test questions, from which the USCIS officer would pick 10, at least six of which had to be answered correctly by the applicant. Once the applicant met the minimum correct-answer threshold, the testing would stop and the applicant would be informed of the result.

Under the current version, the bank of 100 potential civics test questions and the 10-question portion have been expanded to 128 and 20, respectively, with at least 12 correct answers required to pass the exam.

Applicants who are at least 65 years old and have been a US permanent resident for 20 years or more are exempted from the new policy and will continue to be tested under the original 10-question format.

Notably, the revised version was already implemented at least once before, albeit very briefly, during the waning days of the first Trump administration. After the Democrats recaptured the White House in January 2021, the Biden administration reverted back to the old version, allegedly because the revision might “inadvertently create potential barriers to the naturalization process.”

Thus, aside from possessing the necessary intellectual aptitude to master the history and principles of the United States government, aspiring US citizens must also be able to demonstrate a proactive pattern of past behavior that is indicative of being a law-abiding, productive member of American society.

Nevertheless, whether or not membership in the Democratic Party or the GOP, or being a liberal or evangelical, or transgender or heterosexual, may help or hurt one’s naturalization chances is beyond the scope of this article.

Any opinion addressing such issues is an exercise in futility given the deep chasm pervading in American society today.