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U.S. Citizenship Test Redesigned |
| 01-DEC-2006 |
Immigrants seeking citizenship who now answer questions such as "What are the colors of our flag?" would be asked "Why do we have 13 stripes on the flag?" if the new questions are approved. Other queries include "Who sold the Louisiana Territory to the U.S.?," "Name the writers of the Federalist Papers" and "What did the abolitionists try to end before the Civil War?"
Officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Homeland Security agency that administers the exam, said the questions are part of an effort to standardize the tests, given nationwide, and increase immigrants' knowledge of U.S. history.
The agency will roll out the new questions in sample tests given to about 5,000 immigrant volunteers in 10 cities early next year, Gonzalez said. The cities include Boston; Miami; Denver; El Paso; Yakima, Wash.; and Albany, N.Y.
A notice will be mailed to applicants scheduled for an interview. It will explain the program and include a study guide. Volunteers who fail the new test can try again using the old test.
Immigrants must answer six of 10 questions correctly to pass. Officials will decide which of the 144 questions work and which do not. About 40 questions will be deleted before permanent changes are made in 2008.
Some of the questions are simple, such as "What country is on the southern border of the United States?" The answer is Mexico, the home country of most legal and illegal immigrants.
Others are more difficult. "What alliance of North American and European countries was created during the Cold War?" The answer is NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The new test and its questions were drawn up because "over the past 10 years . . . the standardization and meaningfulness of the naturalization test have come under scrutiny," according to a statement by the American Institutes for Research, an independent firm that helped design the pilot program.
Read official details at USCIS :
http://www.uscis.gov/files/pressrelease/FactSheetNatzTest113006.pdf |
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