There are two civics tests.
Your filing date decides.

As of August 2026 the United States is running two different naturalization civics tests at the same time, with different question pools, different lengths and different passing scores. Which one you take is set by the date you filed Form N-400 — not your interview date, and not any choice you make. Most study material online still describes only one of them. This guide covers the test, the English requirement, who is eligible, and how the process actually runs.

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This is study and reference material, not legal advice, and it is not affiliated with US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Naturalization decisions turn on individual facts, and questions about eligibility, good moral character or any immigration history belong with an accredited representative or an immigration attorney. Every figure here carries a primary source and a date. Before you rely on any of it, check it against uscis.gov, because this material changed in 2025 and could change again.

ON THIS PAGE

Which Test Do You Take? The Question Pool The Answers That Change The 65/20 Reduced Set The English Test If You Do Not Pass Who Is Eligible Continuous Residence Is Not Physical Presence Good Moral Character The Process, End to End The Oath of Allegiance Things People Get Wrong Where This Comes From

There are two, they are both live, and your filing date decides

Which Test Do You Take?

This is the first thing to settle and the thing most study material gets wrong. As of August 2026 there are two different civics tests in simultaneous use. They have different question pools, different numbers of questions and different passing scores. Which one you take is decided by the date you filed Form N-400 — not by the date of your interview, and not by any choice you make.

If you filed Form N-400	You take	Pool	Asked	To pass
Before 20 October 2025	The 2008 civics test	100 questions	Up to 10	6 correct
On or after 20 October 2025	The 2025 civics test	128 questions	Up to 20	12 correct

The three traps in that table

It is the filing date, not the interview date. If you filed in September 2025 and are interviewed in 2027, you still take the 2008 test. Nobody gets a choice. During the 2020 to 2021 episode a narrow group of applicants could elect between versions; that is over, and any page still offering you a choice is out of date. The pass mark is 60 percent either way — 6 of 10, or 12 of 20 — so the 2025 test is not harder per question, it is simply longer and drawn from a larger pool.

The authority is a Federal Register notice, 90 FR 45047, published on 18 September 2025, which takes effect thirty days later and produces the 20 October date USCIS uses publicly. It is confirmed independently in the USCIS Policy Manual at Volume 12, Part E, Chapters 1 and 2, and on USCIS's own study pages, which list updated answers for both tests — direct confirmation that USCIS considers both of them live.

The officer stops early, in both versions

This is worth knowing before you sit down. The officer stops asking as soon as the outcome is decided. On the 2025 test that means stopping at 12 correct or at 9 incorrect; on the 2008 test, at 6 correct or 5 incorrect. A perfect run on the 2025 test is therefore 12 questions, not 20. The early stop is, according to the Federal Register notice, the principal modification distinguishing the 2025 test from the 2020 test it is based on — under the 2020 version all 20 were asked regardless.

Where to get it, and why you should get it from USCIS and nowhere else

The Question Pool

Both civics tests are drawn from a published pool. USCIS puts the whole thing out in advance, with every officially acceptable answer, which makes this one of the few examinations where studying the actual questions is the intended method rather than a shortcut.

Test	Official document	What it contains
2025 civics test	M-1778	The 128 questions and their acceptable answers
2008 civics test	M-638	The 100 questions and their acceptable answers

Get the pool from uscis.gov, not from a study site

Including this one. The 2025 pool is a modified re-release of an earlier 128-question test, which means a list copied from memory or from an older third-party page can be wrong in ways that are invisible to the reader. Both documents are free at uscis.gov, under the Citizenship Resource Center. Download the current PDF and study from that. USCIS also maintains a Check for Test Updates page, which is where changed answers are published between editions.

The pool is organized into three sections, and the quizzes on this site follow the same division, because it is the division USCIS itself uses.

1

American Government

Principles of American democracy; the system of government — the three branches, Congress, the Presidency, the courts, and federalism; and rights and responsibilities. This is the largest section in both pools.
2

American History

The colonial period and independence; the 1800s; and recent American history together with other important historical information.
3

Integrated Civics

Geography, symbols and holidays. The smallest section, and the one people tend to leave until last and then lose marks on.

It is an oral test, and that changes how to study

The civics test is spoken. The officer asks, you answer aloud in English, and any answer on the official acceptable list is credited. Multiple-choice practice — including the quizzes on this site — is a way of checking recall, not a simulation of the exam. It is easier than the real thing, because seeing four options prompts you. When you can answer from the question alone, out loud, without the options in front of you, you are ready. Practise saying the answers, not recognising them.

Some correct answers depend on who is in office and where you live

The Answers That Change

A number of questions in both pools do not have a permanent answer. Some depend on who currently holds an office; others depend on the state you live in. These are the questions most likely to be wrong on any study material that has not been updated recently, and they are worth checking the week before your interview rather than the month before.

Who holds the office now. The President and Vice President; the Speaker of the House; the Chief Justice of the United States; the Governor of your state; and which political party the President belongs to.
Who represents you. Your two US Senators, and your US Representative. These depend on your address, and for a Representative on your congressional district.
Where you live. The capital of your state. Note the special cases USCIS sets out for residents of the District of Columbia and of US territories, who have no state Governor or state capital to name.
How many of a thing there are now. A small number of questions turn on counts that have changed historically, such as the number of Justices on the Supreme Court.

Where to get the current answers

USCIS publishes updates on its Check for Test Updates page, and it lists them separately for the 2008 test and the 2025 test. Use that page rather than a news article, and use it close to your interview date. For your own Senators and Representative, senate.gov and house.gov both have lookup tools that take your address. This site does not print current officeholders, deliberately — a printed name on a study page is wrong the moment it changes, and the reader has no way to tell.

A real and significant concession, and it is not automatic to spot

The 65/20 Reduced Set

An applicant who is 65 years old or older and has been a lawful permanent resident for 20 years or more gets special consideration. Instead of studying the whole pool, they study a designated reduced set, marked with an asterisk in the official USCIS materials, and the officer draws the civics questions from that reduced set.

The reduced set is 20 questions, and the officer asks 10, of which 6 must be correct — the same pass ratio as everyone else, from a much smaller list.
Eligibility is measured at the time of filing, so an applicant who turns 65 later does not gain it retroactively by waiting.
This is a separate concession from the English exemptions below, and an applicant may qualify for one, both or neither.

The asterisked questions are identified in the official PDF for whichever test applies. Because the two pools differ, the reduced sets differ too, so an applicant relying on this concession needs the right edition even more than everyone else does.

Three parts, and two ways to be exempt from all of them

The English Test

The English requirement is tested in three components, and they are scored separately from the civics test. Failing one part does not mean retaking the others.

Component	What happens
Speaking	Assessed by the officer from your ordinary answers during the interview itself, on the N-400 questions. There is no separate speaking exercise
Reading	You read sentences aloud. You must read one of the sentences you are given correctly
Writing	You write sentences that are dictated to you. You must write one of them correctly

USCIS publishes the reading and writing vocabulary lists, so the vocabulary in the sentences is not a surprise. As with the civics pool, get those lists from uscis.gov.

Two age-and-residence exemptions from English entirely

The 50/20 rule	An applicant who is 50 or older at filing and has lived in the United States as a lawful permanent resident for at least 20 years is exempt from the English requirement.	50 and 20
The 55/15 rule	An applicant who is 55 or older at filing and has been a lawful permanent resident for at least 15 years is likewise exempt.	55 and 15

Both exemptions cover the English test only. An applicant who is exempt from English still takes the civics test — but may take it in the language of their choice, with an interpreter. Note also how these interact with the reduced set above: someone who is 65 with 20 years as an LPR is exempt from English under 50/20 and takes the reduced civics set, which is a substantially different examination from the standard one.

The medical disability exception, Form N-648

Separately from age and residence, an applicant with a physical or developmental disability or a mental impairment that has lasted or is expected to last twelve months or more may seek an exception to the English and civics requirements, on Form N-648, certified by a licensed medical professional. This is a different thing from a disability accommodation — an accommodation changes how the test is administered, such as a sign language interpreter or an accessible site, while the N-648 exception removes the requirement. Ask for an accommodation when you file if you need one.

You get a second attempt, and only on the part you failed

If You Do Not Pass

1

You get two attempts

Failing at the first interview is not the end of the application. USCIS schedules a second interview.
2

Only the failed portion is retested

If you passed the English components and failed civics, you retake civics only, and the reverse holds. This is worth knowing because applicants often prepare everything again from scratch.
3

The second interview is 60 to 90 days later

That interval is the normal scheduling window, and it is study time rather than waiting time.
4

If the second attempt fails

The application is denied. An applicant may request a hearing on the denial using Form N-336, and may also file a fresh N-400 later — noting that a new filing date may put them on a different version of the civics test than the one they originally prepared for.

The general rule, and the shorter route for spouses of citizens

Who Is Eligible

Naturalization eligibility under section 316 of the Immigration and Nationality Act has several requirements that must all be met. The numbers below are the general rule.

Requirement	General rule, INA 316	Spouse of a US citizen, INA 319(a)
Age	18 or older at filing	18 or older at filing
Status	Lawful permanent resident	Lawful permanent resident
Continuous residence as an LPR	5 years	3 years
Physical presence in the United States	30 months, that is 913 days	548 days
Residence in the state or district where you file	3 months	3 months
Marriage	—	Three years of marital union with a spouse who was a US citizen for that whole period
Also required	Good moral character, attachment to the Constitution, English and civics, and the oath	The same

Military service routes

Sections 328 and 329 of the Act provide separate routes for members of the armed forces. Section 328, for one year of honorable service, waives the residence and physical presence requirements. Section 329, for service during a designated period of hostilities, waives residence, physical presence, the age requirement and the filing fee. These are genuinely different tracks and anyone eligible for them should not be following the general timeline.

Two separate requirements that get conflated constantly

Continuous Residence Is Not Physical Presence

They are different tests and you must satisfy both

Continuous residence	That you have maintained the United States as your residence, without breaking it. It is about the character and continuity of your residence, not a count of days. A single long trip can break it even if your day count is comfortable.	Unbroken
Physical presence	That you were physically inside the United States for at least half the qualifying period — 913 days out of five years, or 548 out of three. It is arithmetic: add up the days.	Counted

You can satisfy one and fail the other, which is exactly why the distinction matters. An applicant who takes many short trips may keep continuous residence and fall short on days. An applicant who takes one eight-month trip may have plenty of days and a broken residence.

An absence of more than six months but less than a year creates a rebuttable presumption that continuous residence was broken. Rebuttable means you may present evidence that you did not abandon your US residence — ties such as employment, family, a home and tax filings.
An absence of one year or more breaks continuous residence, and the clock generally restarts. This is the one that ends applications.
Form N-470 exists to preserve residence for naturalization purposes for certain applicants working abroad, and it must generally be filed before leaving or within the first year of absence. If a long posting abroad is coming, this is the form to ask about first, not afterwards.

A framework, not a judgement you can look up

Good Moral Character

An applicant must show good moral character for the statutory period — generally the five years before filing, or three for a spouse of a citizen — and up to the moment of the oath. Section 101(f) of the Act lists conditions that bar a finding of good moral character, and some bars are permanent: a murder conviction, and an aggravated felony conviction on or after 29 November 1990, bar naturalization permanently.

Two things worth understanding before you file

USCIS may look outside the statutory period. Conduct before the five or three years may be considered in the overall determination. And the question is not only about convictions. Failure to file tax returns, unpaid child support, and failure to register for Selective Service where required can all bear on the determination. This is the part of the process where general information is least useful. If there is anything at all in your history — an arrest, a dismissed charge, a tax problem, a prior immigration issue — speak to an immigration attorney or a Department of Justice accredited representative before filing. Filing an N-400 puts you in front of the government.

And the one number this page will not give you

The Process, End to End

1

File Form N-400

Online or on paper. Online filing is available, and there is a fee discount for it. Note that USCIS's own N-400 web page was serving several-year-old content when this page was written, including a statement that online filing was not available, which is wrong.
2

Biometrics

Fingerprints and photograph, for the background check. There is no longer a separate biometrics fee — the 2024 fee rule folded it into the form fee.
3

The interview

An officer reviews your N-400 with you under oath, assesses your spoken English from that conversation, and administers the reading, writing and civics tests.
4

The decision

Granted, continued, or denied. Continued is common and is not a denial — it usually means a test must be retaken or a document is outstanding.
5

The oath ceremony

You are not a citizen until you take the oath. At the ceremony you surrender your permanent resident card and receive a Certificate of Naturalization.

Fee, from 8 CFR 106.2	Amount
Form N-400, filed on paper	$760
Form N-400, filed online	$710, reflecting the $50 online discount
Reduced fee, household income at or below 400% of the federal poverty guidelines	$380
Applicants naturalizing under INA 328 or 329, military service	No fee
Biometrics	No separate fee since the 2024 fee rule

Two deliberate omissions

This page gives no processing time. Times vary enormously by field office, and the only number worth having is the current one for your office, from the USCIS processing times tool. A number printed on a study site is worse than no number. And a fee waiver — distinct from the reduced fee — is available on Form I-912 or by written request, for household income at or below 150 percent of the poverty guidelines, receipt of a means-tested benefit, or extreme financial hardship. Fees change; check the current schedule before you send anything.

What it commits you to, and what can be modified

The Oath of Allegiance

The text of the oath is set out in the regulations at 8 CFR 337.1. In substance it requires the applicant to renounce allegiance to any foreign state, to support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States against all enemies, to bear true faith and allegiance to them, and to bear arms or perform noncombatant service or work of national importance when required by law.

The military clauses can be modified. An applicant who can show that they object by reason of religious training and belief, or a deeply held moral or ethical code, may take a modified oath omitting the promise to bear arms, to perform noncombatant service, or both. This is a recognized provision in the regulation rather than a favour, and it is requested through USCIS.

Including one that means you may not need to apply at all

Things People Get Wrong

You may already be a citizen

Naturalization is the process for someone who is not a citizen becoming one. It is a different thing from acquiring citizenship at birth abroad to US citizen parents, and from deriving citizenship automatically as a child when a parent naturalizes, under section 320 of the Act. People in those categories sometimes file N-400s they do not need. If a parent was a US citizen, or became one while you were a minor and living in their custody as a permanent resident, find out whether you are already a citizen before applying to become one — the form for proving it is N-600, not N-400.

A green card is not permanent in the sense people assume. Permanent residence can be abandoned, and long absences are how it usually happens.
The civics test is oral. Recognising an answer among four options is not the same skill as producing it aloud.
Passing the test is one requirement of several. Residence, presence, good moral character and the oath all stand on their own.
The pass mark is 60 percent, on both versions. The 2025 test is longer, not proportionally harder.
Study material goes stale fast. This subject changed in October 2025 and a great deal of what is published online still describes the previous arrangement.

And a warning about the source you would expect to trust most

Where This Comes From

Which test applies. Federal Register notice 90 FR 45047, published 18 September 2025, and the USCIS Policy Manual Volume 12, Part E, Chapters 1 and 2.
Eligibility. The Immigration and Nationality Act as published in the US Code — sections 316, 319, 328 and 329, and 101(f) for good moral character.
Fees and the oath. Title 8 of the eCFR — part 106 for fees, part 337 for the oath.
The question pools and vocabulary lists. USCIS documents M-1778 and M-638, from the Citizenship Resource Center at uscis.gov.

A caution about uscis.gov itself

While this page was being written, several uscis.gov pages returned content that was years out of date — the Form N-400 page showed fee figures from 2016 and stated that online filing was unavailable. The figures on this page were therefore taken from the Federal Register, the US Code and the eCFR rather than from USCIS web pages, and anything that could not be verified that way has been left out. Note also that the civics practice test hosted at my.uscis.gov was still describing the older arrangement in which applicants could choose between test versions, which is no longer true. None of that makes USCIS the wrong authority — it is the only authority. It does mean checking the date on the page you are reading, there as much as anywhere else.

There are two civics tests.Your filing date decides.