Applicant Performance on the Naturalization Test - February 2021

National Pass Rate

Section 312 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) requires that naturalization applicants must demonstrate an ability to read, write, and speak words in ordinary usage in the English language, and have a knowledge and understanding of U.S. history and government (civics). To meet the requirements of Section 312 of the INA, applicants must pass a naturalization test to become naturalized citizens. The naturalization test consists of two components – an English and a civics component.

The pass rate above represents the cumulative pass rate of applicants who took both the English and civics components of the test since it was fully implemented on October 1, 2009.

Background on the Data

The overall national pass rate is determined based solely on an applicant's first test within the current naturalization application.

The data reflected above were taken from internal case management systems used to track naturalization applications and have been gathered to provide a general snapshot of how applicants are performing on the naturalization test. Please note that test results for each applicant are manually entered into the case management system and some errors may occur during manual entry. Although every effort has been undertaken to eliminate any errors made during manual data entry, errors may exist that would impact the publicized national pass rate.