WASHINGTON — A harder civics test. Stricter social media vetting. Neighborhood investigations into people’s “moral character.”

The Trump administration is erecting new hurdles for lawful permanent residents applying for U.S. citizenship, part of a broader effort to tighten an immigration system that federal officials say has become too lax. Officials are reviving old vetting standards and adding new requirements that emphasize cultural assimilation and more aggressively screen applicants for “anti-American” views.

Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, recently said he was “declaring war” on anyone who wants to naturalize but “doesn’t want the responsibility of what it means to actually be a U.S. citizen.”

Some immigrant advocacy groups contend that the moves are meant to discourage people from applying for citizenship and to raise the bar in a way that would reduce the number of naturalized citizens, or immigrants who were approved for citizenship as opposed to people who gained it via birthright. They worry that the anti-American label could be applied to those who disagree with the administration on matters such as the war in the Gaza Strip.

The changes are stoking fear among immigrants who want to apply but are hesitant to reopen their cases and invite greater scrutiny from immigration authorities, according to legal advocates and groups that teach citizenship classes.

Immigrant Groups Say the Old Rules Were Fair

They say the process to obtain citizenship was already fair. To become a citizen, people generally have to have a green card for several years, submit an application, pay a fee, complete an interview with a Citizenship and Immigration Services officer, pass a background check as well as English and civics tests, and take an oath. Those who marry U.S. citizens can apply sooner after obtaining a green card.

Nicole Melaku, executive director at National Partnership for New Americans, a coalition of immigrant rights groups, said she was concerned that the changes would have a chilling effect on applications. Although green card holders already have the right to live and work in the United States permanently, naturalized citizens have greater protections against deportation, the right to vote and the ability to sponsor more family members, among other things.

“This is an intimidation and fear-producing tactic from this administration to possibly dissuade individuals from accessing the process,” Melaku said.

In mid-August, Citizenship and Immigration Services issued a memo that increased the standard to show “good moral character.” This is a long-standing requirement that previously involved checking for criminal convictions and other acts of wrongdoing, such as failure to pay child support. Now, officers must also check for “positive attributes,” such as family caregiving, educational attainment, stable employment and community involvement.

Expanding Social Media Searches for Anti-American Activity

The agency also said in a policy memo that it would begin considering “any involvement in anti-American or terrorist organizations” in requests for immigration benefits, including citizenship applications. Officials said they would screen people for support of “antisemitic terrorist organizations” and expand social media vetting to include checks for anti-American activity.

The agency also said it would resume neighborhood investigations of immigrants who apply for citizenship, meaning that officers could interview neighbors and coworkers of applicants as part of the vetting process. Immigration authorities had essentially stopped doing this by 1991.

People who apply on or after Oct. 20 will also have to take a harder civics test, which will require them to answer 12 out of 20 questions correctly, up from six of 10. The list of potential questions has been expanded to 128 from 100. It also eliminates several simple geography questions and adds some that are more nuanced.

Although the administration’s changes have prompted concern from advocates that citizenship applications could decrease, some immigrants said President Donald Trump’s pledges to crack down on immigration gave them new urgency to apply.

California Woman Overcomes Her Fears to Become a Citizen

Cynthia Verduzco, who lives in California’s Bay Area, said she decided to seek citizenship shortly after the election last November. Verduzco, who said she was brought to the United States from Mexico when she was an infant, previously had protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. She received her green card in 2022 after marrying a U.S. citizen.

Verduzco said she used to have few concerns about remaining in the country with her green card. But she became more nervous after Trump pledged an aggressive deportation campaign, which has expanded beyond people who are in the country illegally to include certain permanent residents. She said she wanted to make sure that she could stay to take care of her three children who were born in America. And having grown up in the United States, she felt that the country was her home.

After becoming eligible in January, she said she immediately applied and started attending citizenship classes through a local organization. Though she felt confident she could pass the mandated civics test, she said she was still nervous going through the process and kept a quieter presence on social media. She took the required oath of allegiance to the United States in May.

“My fear was that piece of hard plastic could be taken from me at any moment,” she said of her green card.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favors lower immigration, said that even more tightening of the citizenship process could be necessary, but he thought the administration’s actions were a “good start.” He added that the country for too long had treated the naturalization process as “a mere paperwork matter,” making it harder to screen out candidates who were not fully committed to becoming U.S. citizens.

“If acquiring citizenship is too easy, it is devalued by us and not valued by the candidate for citizenship,” Krikorian said.

Broad Discretion to Decide Good Moral Character

Caroline Matthews, the supervising attorney at Pathways to Citizenship, a legal nonprofit in San Diego, said that more people are nervous in part because federal officers seem to have a lot of discretion to determine what demonstrates good moral character, and that people are unclear about how to meet the new standards. Some applicants who qualified for fee waivers are choosing to pay the roughly $700 in full, she said, because they did not want to risk being denied if they appeared to be relying on government benefits.

Other applicants have grown more conscious about what they are posting on social media, Matthews said. Some have also worried about the possibility of having their green cards revoked or being subject to deportation if they reopen their cases by applying to naturalize, she added.

“For example, say you got your green card through a spouse, and you later divorce,” she said. “You can get pulled into a situation where you’re defending that you had a bona fide marriage and you didn’t get that through fraud.”

Still, Matthews said the organization had recently seen strong interest from people hoping to become citizens, particularly ahead of the new civics test.

So far, there have not been sharp changes in the number of applications compared with the same period last year.

During the first three quarters of the 2025 fiscal year, the federal government approved roughly 680,000 citizenship applications, according to the latest quarterly data from Citizenship and Immigration Services. In the 2024 fiscal year, more than 818,000 people became naturalized citizens.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Madeleine Ngo

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